Happy December Jack
by Mc Parrot
Summary: I’m afraid because the years I’ve had someone special, someone close to me,’ Jack looked up at Ianto with a face of terror. ‘They die at this time of the year.’ Ianto's determined to change things this year. Angst and fluff and M for a reason. Now complet
1. December 23

Dedicated to John and Gareth, because without them we wouldn't have Jack and Ianto. Many many thanks guys. This is my Xmas present to you.

A/N This story came about because CJ said something that gave xosuperstarchloeox an idea that she then told me about and I, in typical fashion turned into something a lot angstier and quite a bit bigger. This story is a collaboration between me and Chloe with some input from the welsh voice that reads over her shoulder and CJ. Working with Chloe and her "muses" has been a wonderful experience. Thanks for sharing with me and inviting me to join in. And many thanks CJ. You started it. The "welsh voice" has an interesting take on things as well!

This the Christmas story we might have had if "Out of Time" never happened. Also assume that Jack and Ianto have been in a serious relationship for several months and Ianto knows about Jack's immortality.

In this first chapter we have angst, then we get into fluff, bondage with fairy lights (thanks CJ) and come back to angst again. It is a full programme for your holiday enjoyment.

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December 23rd

Ianto dragged his battered and bruised body into the Hub and sank into the first chair he came to. It was actually Owen's and his bleary eyes noticed something odd. He suddenly looked up and focused on a sprig of green sticking out from the top of the monitor. Mistletoe?!

Owen! You sneaky fuck!

Cursing Ianto crashed the chair backwards getting as far away as he could before anyone noticed what he was sitting under. The last thing he wanted right now was to be kissed – by anybody. He glanced up to where a subdued Jack was slinking into his office. He was covered in blood, his own and the weevil's and he was deeply upset they'd had to kill the creature. But none of that made Ianto feel any more fondly towards him than he had when they went out. He particularly didn't want to kiss Jack right now. Owen would be preferable.

Muttering to himself Ianto got up and headed to the locker room; let Jack shower on his own. He'd been in a weird mood for days, evasive, snarky, demanding and downright rude and Ianto had had enough of it. He was particularly pissed off with being treated like a cross between a house elf, a sex slave and a naughty child. Ianto make the coffee. Ianto bring me the phone. Ianto suck my cock. Ianto have you got your gun? Ianto don't chase the weevil that way. Ianto watch out for traffic. Ianto, Ianto, Ianto, but nothing actually useful like, Ianto the weevil's right behind you. No Jack didn't give him a chance to move out the way, just flung himself straight in there and let the weevil chew him up so that Ianto had no choice but to shoot it and somehow that made the weevil's death Ianto's fault, even though Jack had actually died too and Ianto really hated that.

God he was tired.

Ianto stayed under the shower, letting the water wash off the stench of weevil and sewers and the heat soothe his bruises. He couldn't stay there forever however. He needed to get home to bed. The others would already be gone by now. The trick would be to get out without Jack snagging him for another stupid task.

God what had happened to them? Seemed like only days ago he was delighted to be last in the hub with Jack. They'd been really happy. Well at least Ianto had but then somehow, about the beginning of the month Jack had gone all moody and funny. Everyone had noticed and none of them had any idea what was wrong with him. Ianto had started off being mildly and then seriously concerned. That didn't last though. Jack showed no signs of sharing and started brushing him off, being rude and downright disconcerting and nasty. The trouble was, they were all working hard, they were all tired and it was nearly Christmas. Ianto wanted to start feeling happy, to be with happy people and have a bit of Christmas cheer. Hi family weren't here so he didn't have some mothering to look forward to. The others were helping, in fact they'd been quite fun recently but Jack seemed to be determined that if he was miserable Ianto had to be too.

He'd gone too far though. One night last week he'd evicted Ianto from his bed. He'd been rough and he'd been selfish and when Jack was finished, suddenly that was it. He'd rolled off, picked up his clothes and marched off to his bathroom. He patently didn't want Ianto there anymore.

Ianto felt like the bottom had dropped out of his world. There had to be something wrong with Jack because Ianto couldn't think of a single thing that he had done that might have triggered behaviour like that. He tried everything he knew of to find out what was wrong. Jack kept insisting that nothing was.

It hurt terribly, but whatever they'd had was obviously over. Ianto had known Jack for a little less than a year and they had a really dicey history. Maybe he'd suddenly realised what a screw up Ianto actually was? Maybe he was manic depressive. Right now he seemed border line psychotic and Ianto couldn't deal with it. He felt guilty, he should try to help, but he was continually rebuffed. He could only take so much of that, he was too fragile himself, he knew that.

The water finally started to cool down and reluctantly he turned it off and climbed out. Dressed in jeans and tee shirt he headed out, glancing anxiously at Jack's office, but there was no sign of anyone there. Letting out a sigh of relief he made his way up to the tourist office unmolested, picked up his keys and let himself out. He locked the door behind him, straightened up and turned… 'Whoa!' …straight into Jack.

Jack grabbed his shoulders to steady him, then just stood there chewing his lip, staring at him.

Ianto heaved a sigh. 'Jack. I'm tired. I want to go home.' I really don't want to see you right now. His heart still did that flippy thing when Jack looked at him like that until he remembered that it was all over and then it seemed to go thunk and sit in his chest like it was never going to beat again. They stood there some more. 'Jack. Can you let me go please.'

Jack swallowed, and Ianto was surprised to see tears in his eyes. However it was fairly dark just here at this corner of Mermaid Quay.

'Jack?'

Jack drew himself up. Pouted. 'Walk with me,' he barked. He softened the order. 'Please?'

Ianto sighed loudly, letting Jack know very clearly that he didn't want to be doing this. He allowed himself to be propelled along the boardwalk. What the hell did he want now?

It was dark and the lights from the Plass made pretty patterns on the ripples on the water. They stopped and leant on the railings watching the water move underneath them. Ianto wondered how cold it was, what it would feel like to fall in, to have the dark water close over his head? To not have to work next to Jack every day knowing that what they had had obviously meant so little to the other man? For christsake Jack was the first man he'd ever slept with, that surely wasn't something to throw away lightly. He kept a close reign on his features, hiding behind the butler face. He was good at that. He was starting to get cold and was about to just turn and leave; he didn't have to take this crap, when Jack finally spoke. 'What are you doing for Christmas?'

What?

Ianto stood and gaped.

'What are you doing for Christmas?' Jack repeated.

'I… I… Ah. Nothing. I suppose I can work if you want me too.'

'Why are you doing nothing?' Jack sounded surprised. 'Where are your family? Aren't you going to them?'

'No. They're away. Mam and Tad, they've gone to Australia to spend Christmas with Miff and Garry, meet their grandson.' He was sure Jack knew this. The others certainly did. Gwen had even placed an order for a didgeridoo to be brought back for Rhys. 'Anyway, what do you care?'

'I care,' Jack said. He was standing twisting his hands. 'I do care,' he said adamantly. Ianto noticed a glint. He had a wedding band on his finger!

He lunged for Jack's hand, caught it and held up the ring finger. 'Jack?'

Blackly Jack stared at him, and then suddenly he dissolved. With a despairing cry he threw himself at Ianto. Caught by surprise he automatically caught him in his arms then stood there dumbly as Jack burst into noisy sobs. He patted his back awkwardly unsure what to do. Jack's hands tangled in his sweatshirt pulling him closer and he could feel body raking shudders running through him. All of a sudden Ianto's walls fell. He knew there'd been something wrong. Feeling something like relief that there was a reason for Jack's behaviour he wrapped his arms around his Captain holding him tight, leaning back against the railing to take his weight. He soothed and shushed, hand on Jack's head, stroking his silky hair, letting the other man cry, wondering who the hell Jack had married and why.

Jack cried for a long time. Eventually he calmed but stayed leaning into Ianto, arms around him, head on his shoulder. A young couple had walked past during the messy sobs stage. They came back again with a parcel of chips, seemingly surprised to see them still there. Ianto could tell the bloke was going to ask if they were all right. He made eye contact and shook his head, motioned him on. He also smiled and mouthed "Thank you." It made him feel good to know that there were people in the world who cared enough about others to ask if complete strangers were okay.

Ianto was starting to shiver before Jack showed any signs of wanting to move. 'Come on,' he told him. 'Let's go get in the car and crank the heater up. I'm not dressed for being out.' He just knew that going back to the hub wasn't a good idea even if he didn't yet know why. The fact that Jack had met him outside told him that.

He led a compliant Jack along to his car around the corner from the Plas and seated him in the passenger seat before getting in himself. He turned the car on and the radio off. He didn't want any distractions. 'Buckle up.' Jack did as he was told.

Ianto didn't drive home. He'd meant to but between leaving the carpark and reaching the road he decided neutral territory would be a better idea. He drove, took the tunnel, skirted the docks, got on to Cardiff Road and kept going. The car warmed up and started pumping warm air out of the heater. 'Where are we going?' Jack asked wanly when they turned left at Llandough.

'South.'

'Oh.'

'You want to explain what that was all about? Why have you got a ring on your finger?'

The streetlights flicking past gave Jack's face a yellow glow. The tear tracks shone orange. He twisted the ring around and around before cradling the hand to his chest. 'She died. My wife.' He leant his head back against the seat staring straight ahead. 'It's ninety years ago today.'

Ianto let the silence drag out. It wasn't uncomfortable. He knew that now Jack had started he would eventually say more. 'Her name was Louise.' And with that the terrible story flooded out. Jack had been very much in love, with one of his co-workers. They had married, quite against Torchwood regulations at the time, but there was a war on and life was short. Louise's had been. They'd married secretly on December 1st before shipping off to France undercover. Torchwood had been seconded by the secret service for the duration. It had seemed a lark, like a real honeymoon, they both loved the clandestine stuff. They loved working together. They were clever, they had alien tech that the enemy never had. They shouldn't have been caught, but they had been betrayed. Jack found that out later.

Jack had been late getting to a rendezvous point; he'd been picking flowers from the roadside for his love. Louise was captured, tortured and hung as a spy, all within the space of twenty four hours and well before Jack had even found out where she'd been taken. He hadn't even been able to bury her. Happy Xmas.

Jack finally lifted his head and looked at Ianto. His face was white in the dim light. 'I'm sorry I've been so awful lately. December is a really bad month for me. So many bad things have happened in December.'

Ianto reached over and took his hand. 'I wish you'd told me.'

'I couldn't. I…' Jack looked around. 'Where are we?' He only just seemed to notice that they'd stopped.

'Sully,' Ianto told him. They were on a cliff top overlooking the island. 'See the campground down there. Mam used to bring us here for a week in the summer. Tad would come out for the weekend then he'd go back to work and we'd stay. There's a great chip shop in the village. They might still be open. We'll go and see in a bit.'

'You drove us all the way out here for chips?'

'And the view.'

They sat holding hands. The moon rose behind them and the sea took on a silver glow.

'Why couldn't you tell me?' Ianto finally asked.

'I feel… so raw. My skin hurts. I can't bear to be touched. It's like it happened yesterday, not so long ago. It's like this time is Louise's time and the rest of you are ghosts around me.' Jack looked at him sadly. 'When you, any of you come into contact with me it hurts. It's better not to be touched at all.'

'You mean physically touched?' Ianto asked trying to understand.

'No, any sort of contact.' He took his hand back and stared out the window. 'Ianto I'm so scared.'

Ianto looked at him alarmed. 'What? What of?'

'I tried to stay away from you. I really did. I tried to make you mad.'

'Well it worked,' Ianto told him, 'but why would you do that? What are you afraid of?'

'I'm afraid because the years I've had someone special, someone close to me since then.' Jack looked up at him with a face of terror. 'They die at this time of the year.'

'What?'

'They die. Pauly and Euan died, 1923. They drowned in a stupid ferry boat going home for Christmas. Jim, his Spitfire went down over occupied France in the Second World War. Ironically it was only about five miles from where Louise died in the first. Glenda died of cancer on Christmas Eve in 1963 and Alex shot the whole Torchwood team and then himself on New Year's Eve 1999.' He shuddered. 'I hate December.'

Ianto felt a frisson of fear. 'Have you loved other people who haven't died in December?'

'Well yes,' Jack admitted, much to Ianto's relief. 'There was Estelle, but I made sure we never spent a Xmas together and then… You know I lost touch with her towards the end of the war?'

Yes Ianto knew. 'Does that mean that Jim and Estelle were both at the same time?'

'It was wartime.' Jack looked contrite.

'Yeah.'

-

'Anyone else?'

'What?'

'Who else have you loved? Who hasn't died at Christmas time?'

Jack looked at him with eyes full of fear. 'No one. No one I've really loved, who really mattered.'

Ianto's heart was fluttering with fear and joy. Jack loved him, thought he really mattered. So, all he had to do was survive. He took a deep breath. It was all coincidence, superstitious rubbish. 'Until now,' he said firmly. He put the car in gear. 'I want some chips.'


	2. Xmas Eve

A/N Thank you to those who have reviewed, we are honoured. Truely, it means a lot.

It is quite hard to have a piece to upload each day (especially at this time of year) when Chloe and I have to check back to each other and marry our ideas together. Boy we are having fun. Chloe's muses are enjoying it too.

Poor Chloe however has had complete computer melt down and is prostituting herself for favours to use other peoples. Then the silly darling tried surfing down some stairs on a boogie board and injured herself. The perils, boys and girls of too much alcohol during the festive season. We make these mistakes people, so you don't have to make them yourself. Okay, enough sillyness. On with the show.

A little light fluff now to carry you through until Xmas day.

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Xmas Eve.

Ianto opened the door of his flat as quietly as he could, but it was hard with his hands full. The milk was threatening to slide out from under his arm and his precious box was in danger of toppling to the floor. Even so, he still took the time to stand and listen. When he couldn't hear any sign of movement he heaved a sigh and stepped inside.

He couldn't hear anything. That meant one of two things. Either there was no one there, or there was and he was still asleep. The fact that the someone in question was Jack and the time was nearly 10.30 am suggested that the former was the reason for the lack of sound.

He carefully lowered the box to the floor and made his way into the kitchen to put his groceries away. Surprisingly there was no sign that Jack had made himself breakfast before leaving. Jack couldn't run without a full stomach and usually if left to himself he would use nearly every utensil and implement in a kitchen just making toast. Ianto was a little concerned. He hoped like hell there was no emergency. He couldn't find his phone this morning so if something had happened he had no idea. Thinking on that he made his way over to the landline and wasn't in the slightest bit surprised to see the light indicating a message received was blinking. Shit.

He shoved the milk and the chicken in the fridge then picked up the phone. The message was from Owen and left him really perplexed. Where the hell, Owen wanted to know, were he and Jack? Was everything alright? He'd seen the CCTV footage from the Mermaid Dock last night and was really concerned that neither of them had either turned up for work or phoned in. They'd found his mobile on the dock. (So that's where it is.) Could he please ring when he got this message.

Ianto rang. He got Tosh. Owen and Gwen were out chasing down rift activity that had disrupted a nativity play at a nursery school. Apparently the baby Jesus had got up and walked out of the performance. It had then eaten the entire buffet set out for the parents, including the table and the tea urn, and escaped via a window. There were apparently, Tosh chortled, rather a lot of upset parents. The children just thought it was a new miracle for Christmas.

Oh, and no, Jack hadn't come in.

Shit. Where was he?

Feeling slightly silly for even thinking it might be possible Ianto went down the passageway and checked his bedroom. He stood in the door completely gobsmacked as he stared at his own Christmas miracle. Jack was sound asleep sprawled across his bed. Incredibly he'd been asleep for at least ten hours. Ianto had known he'd been exhausted, was fairly sure he hadn't slept at all since roughly December the first, but even so… This much sleep from Jack was unprecedented. Feeling a huge lump in his throat he tiptoed back out and shut the door.

Back in the kitchen he called Tosh back and told her that Jack was safe and that they were both taking a couple of days off. He was really sorry if that was going to impact on anyone's Christmas plans, but if they'd seen the CCTV footage from last night they must realise that Jack really needed a break. 'Do you know what's been wrong now?' Tosh asked.

'Yes I do,' Ianto told her. 'And I'm going to do my best to make it better.'

'I'll tell the others,' Tosh said. 'Are you all right? Do you need anything?'

Ianto smiled, touched. 'Yes, I'm all right. And all we really need is some time. Thank you sweetheart.'

'Okay. You have a happy Christmas.'

'You too.'

Ianto finished putting his shopping away. He wondered what Jack would say when he realised he'd just relieved them of duty for a few days. He'd probably be delighted that Ianto wouldn't be in harm's way for a few days. He'd be furious that he'd stopped him going to work as well. Ianto grinned. He might have to cuff him to the bed to keep him here.

Humming to himself he went into the lounge and looked at the large lump of greenery he'd bought that morning. He'd told his ten year old neighbour weeks ago that he'd buy a tree to support his scout group fundraiser but he'd forgotten all about it until the knock on his door at 7.30 this morning. He'd been more than a little surprised that Jack hadn't woken up then.

It was a rather misshapen specimen of evergreen but the scent of it was wonderful, filling the flat with freshness and memories of childhood Christmases. That is what had prompted him to head across to his parent's house on his way home from the supermarket, let himself in and liberate the box of decorations that his Mam kept in the top of the linen cupboard. She wouldn't mind. She wasn't exactly using them this year. He paused to think of her and Tad, out there in Australia with is sister and her new family. Did Australian's put up Christmas trees? He must ask when he phoned tomorrow.

Jamming the tree into a bucket he propped it in the corner of the room. It was taller than it looked and gouged a green track across the ceiling. He ignored that. Collecting the decoration box he opened it and cautiously pulled out a lifetime's worth of tat. He found the lights, they needed to go on first. The tinsel was tatty and god knows how old, but once he'd lifted that out he found treasure. There was the glitter star he'd made the last year before he went to high school, and Miff's stamped embossed picture frames, one for each of them that hung up with red ribbons. There were the flash glass balls that Mam treasured and Peter's godawful bead sculptures. Ianto sorted through the box, lost in a world of memories. He was sitting cradling a glass sculpture of a deer when he heard movement and looked up to see a bleary Jack standing in the doorway. He was smiling at him.

'I bought this for Tad once,' he said, holding out the deer, 'for his birthday. He said it was lovely but it was too fragile and he was afraid he'd break it and that I should keep it.' Ianto swallowed. 'I did. But when it was Christmas I wanted to put it on the tree, so Santa could see we where the sort of people that liked deer.' He grinned at Jack. 'It's lived in this box ever since, tossed around and with things all around it and on top of it. Look at it. It's perfect. Unbroken. Not fragile at all.' He grinned up at Jack. 'Why don't you go and have a shower and then you can help me decorate a tree.'

'I'm guessing,' Jack said quietly, 'the fact that you let me sleep till eleven in the morning means you've told the others we're not going to work?'

Ianto gave him a steady look. 'Yep.'

Jack just nodded. 'Any chance of breakfast? I'm ravenous.'

'How about brunch?'

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'How are you Jack?' Ianto asked as Jack mopped up syrup from his plate with the last of the pancakes. He'd eaten like he hadn't seen food in weeks. Ianto supposed eating had joined sleeping as something Jack hadn't been doing a lot of lately.

Jack peered up at him from under his fringe. 'Better,' he said after some consideration. He still had the ring on his finger.

'Good. I'm fine too,' he added. 'Thank you for asking.'

Jack grinned. 'I've been a bit of a prat haven't I?'

'Yep.'

Jack pushed his plate away and sat back with a sigh. 'That was good.' He twisted the ring unconsciously. 'Do you need me for this tree stuff? I've got something I want to do.'

'You're not going to work are you?'

'No. Definitely not.' Jack gave him one of the rare hundred watt grins. 'You'll be pleased about this I know.'

Ianto wasn't sure about that. 'And you're not going anywhere near the hub?'

'No.' Jack said, his fingers crossed behind his back.

'Will you be back for tea?'

'Oh, I'll be back long before then,' Jack said lasciviously. 'In fact if you were thinking of appetisers…'

Ianto was thinking what a difference a day made.

'Can I borrow your car?'

Ianto rolled his eyes. 'All right,' he said reluctantly. He looked at him suspiciously. 'You're not just taking the car so I won't drive anywhere and potentially have an accident.'

Jack looked surprised. 'I hadn't even thought of that,' he said honestly. 'But you will be careful won't you. Are those tree lights earthed?'

Ianto's eyebrows crawled under his hairline. 'Er. I think I can manage to decorate a Christmas tree without injuring myself. Are you safe to be let loose on the pre Christmas shoppers, that's what I want to know.'

'Who said I was going shopping?'

'And what else would you be doing?'

'I might be visiting my tailor.'

Ianto snorted.

'Or seeing a man about a dog.' His grin was starting to show.

Ianto leant across the table and kissed him, the first real kiss they'd had in weeks. He tasted of syrup. 'Mmm. Yum. I'm sure the tree, and the dog could wait a while.'

Jack smiled back at him but there was a slightly anxious look in his eyes. 'Nice idea.'

'But?'

'I'm sorry.' Jack caught his hand and held it. 'I like the thought…Can we…'

'Later?' Ianto asked gently.

'Thank you.'

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	3. Xmas Day

A/N well this was a mission – 3314 words in one day – and semi edited! I am posting it now because it is actually 2am Xmas morning here, and I won't have another chance at my computer all day. We hope to have Boxing Day up, roughly on boxing day – just depends on real life. Watch this space.

CJ's prompt was for bondage with fairy lights. Well buddy you got it. I've never written bondage before – but once I got going… lol. I was in the supermarket today (with thousands of others acting like they were stocking up for a national disaster, not one day with the shops shut) with this story running through my head, hoping there was no one there that could really read minds.

Oh, Gareth, sweetie, I know I said this was a Xmas present to you. Sorry but I couldn't help myself. It is all Chloe's fault.

Enjoy. Happy Xmas to all of the Torchwood community.

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Christmas Day

Ianto woke to a kiss and the feeling of a heavy body on top of him. Jack was obviously feeling okay about touching again then. Smiling he kissed back, just lying there, Jack's warm body covering his own, his arms spread out on top of his and their legs entwined. They were nearly the same height and lying together like this they met - toes, knees, thighs, groin, all the way up their bodies. Mmm. Very nice way to wake up.

Ianto stretched and pressed their groins together. That was odd. They were naked. Weren't they? But that felt like fur.

Something else was tugging at his conscious mind. Something odd about the light. He went to wrap his arms around his lover and pulled up tight. What?! With a start he opened his eyes even as he realised he couldn't move. For a very brief but horrible moment various nasty scenarios played through his mind to be quashed instantly when he saw his bedroom. He gaped. It was absolutely and completely festooned in fairy lights. It glowed like the tackiest Santa's grotto he had ever seen. Strands of white lights hung like icicles from the tops of the walls. Coloured lights were tacked up in swirling patterns across the ceiling and hanging from the light fittings, drifts of them littered the floor. The curtains and window surrounds had flashing lights (oh God what will the neighbours think) and when he lifted his head to look more strings of them were laid out around him on the bed. It was absolutely fantastic.

But what was even more odd, oh Jack, you really are kinky, was the fact that his arms, and probably his legs, only he couldn't actually see them, were tied up with and had entwined around them MORE fairy lights. Jack, wearing a Santa hat which had lights blinking in a pattern around the brim was lying on top of him grinning like a loon. 'Merry Xmas Ianto!' he shouted. He kissed him some more.

While Ianto was enjoying the kissing he wanted to get his arms around Jack. He wanted to find out what the furry thing was.

'Jack. Let me go.'

'No.'

Ianto struggled but all he succeeded in doing was having whatever was tied around his wrists pull tighter. He was pleased to discover however that it wasn't the actual fairy light cord holding him in place. He didn't think Jack would do that when he'd been so worried about electrocution yesterday. It was something wider and softer. He went still as he realised what it must be. Leather restraints. Very similar no doubt to the set that Jack kept in a chest in his bedroom. If not, he thought, the actual same ones. 'Jack…'

Jack ground his hips against his. 'I love that gravelly tone your voice takes on when you're mad. Do you know that?

Ianto struggled and yanked at this bonds. 'Jack let me go this instant.'

'Nope,' Jack growled back.

'You went to the hub yesterday when you said you wouldn't.'

'So sue me.' Jack's teeth latched over his nipple.

Ianto hissed.

'I am going to have my wicked way with you Ianto Jones,' Jack looked up at him with a smirk, 'and there is nothing you can do about it.'

Jack chewed and licked down Ianto's ribcage, the pompom from the silly hat tickling his chest behind him. Then, the bastard held him down with both hands on his hips and blew raspberries on his belly. Ianto screeched. Jack just laughed, a gorgeous throaty sound. He did it again.

Getting up onto his knees Jack finally satisfied Ianto's curiosity as to the fur. Rising up proudly above him Jack's cock was dressed in a white fur trimmed red satin thong. Father Christmas' underwear maybe? It wasn't quite big enough. It was cute though. Jack posed to let him admire it. He moved closer and straddled Ianto's chest, sitting just far enough back that Ianto couldn't quite get his mouth on the rather beautifully wrapped package. He growled.

'You bite me,' Jack told him darkly, 'and you'll regret it.' He edged closer, pressing the satin against Ianto's hungry mouth, moaning slightly as Ianto's lips and tongue worked him through the fabric. Ianto laved at the bulge, frustrated not to feel Jack's soft skin, sucking and licking till all the fabric was wet. Then he changed tactics and blew.

Jack drew in his breath then wacked his head, 'Naughty boy. I'll have to punish you for that.'

He turned around presenting his lovely butt with the red strap of the thong running between his cheeks, once again just out of reach. He bent down and Ianto was distracted from the view when Jack started treating his cock like an icecream cone. Jack was very talented with the use of his tongue. Ianto moaned in pleasure, awash in the sensation of Jack's mouth on him and filled with joy that things were once again all right between them. This was a marvellous Christmas present of Jack's. His befuddled mind remembered that he actually had a gift for Jack too, and it actually might go down quite well know, if only… he… oh god… could… get Jack… to… let him…oh…go. Oh fuck oh god.

And Jack took his mouth away and sat up.

'What?!'

Jack looked back over his shoulder grinning idiotically as Ianto shouted obscenities at him and bucked his hips trying to find something, anything to give him friction. 'I told you I'd have to punish you.'

Christ one more touch would have been all it would take. Ianto's glare should have killed, but Jack couldn't die.

Cackling slightly Jack climbed off, grabbed something and placed a dolls sized Santa hat over the weeping end of Ianto's cock. Ianto screamed. 'Dammit Jack!'

'Wouldn't want him to get cold.'

Jack came and sat beside him on the bed. He reached a hand out to stroke his face. Ianto bit him. 'Hey!' Jack looked hurt. 'Teeth honey.' He gave a warning glare and reached out again. This time Ianto let him run his finger across his brow and down his cheek. The look on Jack's face was one of total adoration. 'That's better.' He leant in and kissed him. Ianto melted, his heart full of love.

Jack sat up again. 'Have you got your safe word honey?'

Ianto nodded.

'What is it? Let me hear it.'

Ianto smirked. 'Gwen.'

Jack giggled. 'Good. Okay?'

Ianto smiled back. 'Yeah.'

Jack untangled the fairy lights from his arms and legs and removed the restraints from his legs. He kept looking at Ianto, grinning as he worked. Ianto lay there feeling slightly ridiculous, especially with the silly hat on the end of his dick. Pulling a bar, about four feet long with hand grips on the end, out from under the bed (had Jack drugged him to be able to set all this up while he slept?) he quickly transferred the wrist restraints to metal loops on that.

Blindfolded Jack lead Ianto into the hallway. The bar made manoeuvring through the door a little awkward. With a rattle of chain the bar got suspended just above his head. 'Test it,' Jack told him. 'Hang off it.' With some trepidation Ianto held the ends of the bar and hung off it, letting it hold his weight. What the hell had Jack done to make ceiling strong enough to support this? Jack added his weight and yanked. 'Good,' he grunted. 'Don't worry, the house won't fall down. Alien tech.'

Oh Great! 'Jack if you are going to rip the blindfold off and all my old school friends yell "Surprise" I really am going to have to kill you.'

Jack giggled, ran a finger up his spine making him shiver. He reached for the blindfold. 'Your friends were busy but we've tentatively arranged it for your birthday.' He pressed his tongue in Ianto's ear. 'This is much better.'

The blindfold came off to reveal the hallway was also fairylight central. The power bill was going to be immense, especially since Jack appeared to have turned up the heat throughout the whole house. It was really hot in here. The difference from the bedroom, aside from a naked man on a bar hanging from the ceiling was the presence of two huge mirrors, one on either side of where he was standing. He could see three versions of Jack smiling at him and two of himself hanging slightly slumped beneath the bar. 'Now,' said Jack picking up a small tub of something off the floor, 'I am going to decorate my Christmas tree.'

The tub held some green coloured goo. When the goo was finger painted on Ianto's skin it left warm tingling trails wherever it touched. Maybe that was just Jack's fingers. Jack painted it lightly EVERYWHERE. Ianto was moaning wanting more stimulation, even as his skin heated, deliciously burning. Panting slightly Jack started to lick it off in places. Ianto was cursing, fighting, swinging around on the bar while his torturer avoided giving him more than the lightest of touches. He needed more, he needed Jack, he…

The phone rang.

Fuck.

'Oh God!' Ianto's brain snapped back into his big head. 'Jack. What's the time?'

'What? Uh. I don't know. About half past eight.'

Needed to answer the phone. 'Fuck. Let me go. Shit, no. Get the phone. Get the phone. It's my mother.' Australia was ten hours ahead. It would be 6.30 Christmas evening there. They'd agreed to ring at this time.

Jack shot into the lounge and answered the phone. 'Hello, Ianto Jones residence,' he said with his sexiest American accent.

'Ianto? Ah. He's a little tied up right now.' He came back into the hallway wearing an evil grin. 'Is that Mrs Jones? Hello. I'm Ianto's friend Jack from work. Perhaps he's mentioned me?' He winked at Ianto. Ianto made another furious attempt to free himself.

'Oh he has? All good I hope.'

'Oh yes we're having a lovely start to Xmas.' Ianto was frantically shaking his head. 'Yes ma'am, we're about to get some breakfast.' Jack licked his lips. 'We've had a bit of a sleep in. Us lonely bachelors together.' He laughed at something said on the other end. 'No no, Ianto isn't in the bathroom. I don't think he had too much to drink last night. Ah,' he held the phone out, 'here he is now.' He clapped the phone against Ianto's ear.

'Mam.'

'Hello sweetheart. Your friend seems very nice.' Jack raised his eyebrows.

'Yes. Yes he is. How is Christmas in Australia. How's Miff and the baby?' God get this over with before Jack does… Ahhh! Bloody knew it, something.

'Are you all right dear?'

'Yes,' he hissed as Jack's finger worked into his arse. 'Just sat on a pin.' The finger tweaked.

'Oh. Yes, well we've had a lovely day. We went to Mass last night and it was gorgeous. I can't get used to it being so warm of course. We've had a cold meal, but it was lovely. Dad wasn't so keen, were you Father, but Miff is happy and the baby. Oh Ianto, she is a delight. You should see….'

'Jack.' Ianto hissed.

'Mmm.' Jack kissed his other ear as his finger kept up a lazy rotation.

'Look Mum, I've got to go. Someone's just come to the back door.'

'Ow fuck.'

'Yes, no sorry, shouldn't swear, must be the neighbours kids. We'll talk when you get back. Yeah. Bye. Love to Tad. Love you.'

Jack hit the off button and dropped the phone. His arm came round Ianto's chest.

'You evil bastard!'

'Some one's just come to the back door?' Jack's mouth on his neck vibrated as his free hand tweaked his nipples. 'And you loved it.'

'Oh God Jack.'

They didn't say much for a while, building the tension back up as Jack moved around him touching and grinding against him. Finally he removed the thong, his cock enormous with need. 'I,' he told Ianto as he rubbed it against his arse. Ianto moaned and pressed back against him. 'Need an angel on top of my tree.'

'I thought I was the tree.' He grimaced. 'I am green.'

Jack grabbed another gob of goo and spread it around his cock. 'No, we've finished with that game.' He posed for the mirrors. 'This is now my tree.' It was certainly big enough. 'My wood,' Jack snorted. 'And you,' he rubbed warm tingling goo into his arse, 'are the angel.'

'Oooh.' That felt so nice. 'I've never been an angel before.' He held onto the bar, angled his hips and sighed with pleasure as Jack entered him.

'Mmm.' Jack said. 'Oh yes. Oh you are my angel.' He started to thrust with a slow and steady rhythm, his hands holding Ianto's hips. 'You have rescued me. Oh yes nice… rescued me… so many times.'

Ianto's eyes filled with tears. To hear Jack say such things, even in the middle of kinky sex. Ianto rocked back to meet him. 'Oh god Jack.' It meant so much.

The mirrors showed a wonderful yet rather bizarre sight. Ianto was green, Jack's cock was red. Ianto was bent forward slightly arms above his head, legs apart while Jack's body strained in a beautiful line, back slightly bowed and muscles defined between Ianto's legs. Jack's head and Ianto's cock still wore their Santa hats.

Ianto rocked back onto Jack's cock, impaling himself harder and harder wanting more. 'Touch me,' he begged. 'Please Jack. Touch me.'

'No,' Jack growled digging his fingers into his hips. He rammed deeper.

'God you can't…' Ianto writhed.

'I can.' Jack's eyes met his in the mirror. He slowed his rhythm right down. 'I can do anything I want.' He came to a stop buried deep in Ianto's butt, hanging onto his hips to stop him moving. He was panting however. Ianto tightened his muscles, grabbing at him, pleased when Jack moaned. 'I could keep you here all day,' but he obviously couldn't because Jack gave one long luxurious stroke as if to show he could and then broke and started thrusting frantically. God it was good. But it only… surely he would touch him… Jack always… they came together… 'God Jack… Please!'

'No.' Jack's face was flushed with ecstasy. Ianto knew that look.

'Please!' He ground back.

'My… angel.'

'Bastard!' Jack was going to come.

Jack threw his head back, called out. 'Angel,' or maybe it was 'Ianto,' it was hard to tell. His hips jerked and his back was rigid. He looked amazing in the mirror but Ianto didn't give a damn.

'Harkness! You fucking bastard!' Ianto let off a string of swear words, ratcheting forward and back onto Jack's pulsating cock, not caring that he was repeating himself.

Jack collapsed against Ianto's back gasping for breath. 'Good. God… good.' Ianto tried to buck him off. He could feel tremors running through him. 'You are fucking dead meat Harkness, I'll bloody angel you.'

Then the next moment Jack had withdrawn and if by magic Ianto was free. 'Jack!!' Ianto rounded on him but he was already off, sprinting down the hall. Ianto took off after him.

Jack shot into the kitchen and Ianto followed. Jack looked as if he'd meant to head out into the garden but changed his mind when he saw the rain lashing against the window. He made a move back to the door but Ianto blocked him. Ianto was coming around the table, he thought he had Jack trapped when Jack simply took off over the table, leapt over his head and escaped. Ianto chased him into the lounge where they did a circuit of the room on top of the furniture. 'I'll bloody give you Christmas trees. I'll give you this one sideways up your arse.' Jack was laughing. 'Stop laughing at me!'

Jack leapt from the coffee table to the sofa and was launching for the arm of the rocker when Ianto snagged his foot sending him crashing into the tree which toppled with an alarming crunch and Ianto had him. Swarming up his body, pressing him head first into the pine needles and branches he wasn't caring where he was or what Jack was lying on, he was fucking Jack Harkness! Now!

Driven to near breaking point Ianto rammed into him with no finesse at all, but it didn't matter. 'Oh you fucking bastard.' Jack was already prepared and well lubed. With something like a primal howl Ianto ripped into him while Jack sobbed and cried and met him stroke for stroke. Ianto was so aroused and Jack was so turned on by an enraged Ianto that it was over within moments. They came together, Jack gripping his own cock. He didn't think he could ask Ianto to do it.

Twtwtwtwtwtwtw

Jack declared the rest of the day a no clothing day. He did allow Ianto to wear an apron to cook their Xmas dinner. Ianto found it really hard to make decent gravy with Jack's body plastered to his back. He decided the odd lump probably didn't matter.

Ianto produced roast chicken with all the trimmings and plum pudding for dessert. They drank champagne. They made love, gently and quietly in the starry bedroom. They talked. They cuddled. They rested.

Around five o'clock Ianto remembered that he had a present for Jack. Going back into the lounge he stared at the crushed wreckage of the Christmas tree. Its lights were still winking. He grinned. Xmas lights were never going to seem the same again. He couldn't believe it but he was aroused again. Delving under the branches he came up with the little parcel that had originally been at the base of the tree. He carried it back to the bedroom.

'I got you something,' he said handing the parcel over.

Jack's eyes lit up as he took the little squashy parcel and squeezed it. Ianto suddenly realised that he'd probably never had a proper Xmas, never received gifts from someone who really cared about him. It made him wish he'd put a lot more effort in to the gift.

Carefully Jack started removing the tape, then looking up, changed his tack and gleefully ripped the paper off. In his hand was a bundle of red felt. Ianto grinned. He knew Jack knew what that was. He watched Jack pick it up and look at it. Saw the look on his face. It wasn't quite what he was expecting after all. It was a UNIT cap, but where those ones were plain this one had insignia. Torchwood insignia and the Torchwood interlocked hexagonal T. Jack looked up pleased and puzzled. Ianto sat down beside him. 'I'll leave it up to you. You can wear it, or you can get me to wear it.'

Grinning Jack reached up and placed it on Ianto's head, adjusting it to sit with the angle just right, the T above his right eye. 'Oh red really does suit you.' He kissed him. They made love again. Ianto didn't mind this time that he kept his hat on.


	4. Boxing Day

A/N Boxing Day, short and sweet. Told you we'd come back to angst. Just a nice little bit to round the story off. Not quite finished though, there will be a New Year's Eve piece, if real life doesn't intrude. Thank you so much for your reviews – glad you weren't too graphic as the reviews do come through to my email and that can be a bit public.

This chapter is mainly Chloe's doing with my tweaking. I've heard JC is very pleased with the Xmas day chapter – I'm pleased. The Welsh voice though – fair to say he'd not a shipper.

And finishing up – remind me not to do a story with a deadline ever again. Boy, it's been so hard. But so much fun.

So, until NY, this is McParrot, over and out.

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Jack stretched and looked across at the man sleeping soundly on the other pillow. He smiled at the tousled innocence of a sleeping Ianto. Not so innocent when he was awake was he? Thoughts of yesterday nearly made in him reach over and kiss him awake, but that wouldn't be fair. Ianto needed a lot more sleep than he did and although Jack knew he wouldn't complain… well there was something else he could do that Ianto might appreciate even more. A last Christmas present so to speak before life intruded and they had to go back to work.

Carefully Jack climbed out of bed. With all their antics yesterday they'd made an awful mess. He'd clean it all up. Ianto shouldn't have to do it. They would have to go back to work today though, their impromptu little holiday (Jack refused to think of it as anything else, because then he'd have to remember why he'd broken down in the first place) hadn't been fair on the others and they deserved a couple of days off now.

Jack had a quick shower, noted the tree induced scratches were nearly gone, dressed and then headed into the kitchen to start there. He hadn't allowed Ianto to clean up anything yesterday, something he knew Ianto had been very uncomfortable about. They'd put leftovers in the fridge and that was all they'd done.

Now Jack scrapped plates, filled the sink with soapy water and started washing up. He actually quite liked being domestic like this. It was calming, earthed him in the mundane and the here and now. He just didn't have cause to do it very often. Yesterday, here, Christmas with Ianto, it had been fantastic. It would have been fantastic even without the sex. He'd never had Christmas with anyone he cared about before…

He gasped, hanging onto the edge of the sink to hold himself up as all the memories he'd tried to push away flooded back. All the tragic unhappy Christmases.

Get a grip he told himself, even as he found himself feeling for the wedding ring he was still wearing. No. No! This is Ianto's house. I've had a fantastic Christmas with Ianto. No one died. We are happy. Think of Ianto. He pulled off the ring and flung it at the floor. I'm going to do nice things for Ianto. He pushed himself away from the sink. When I'm finished here I'll make breakfast. Yes. What have we got that will do for breakfast? Going through the fridge and Ianto's pantry he forced his mind back into today, Ianto, breakfast, Ianto still asleep in his bed, oh and finally, yes, so nice - memories of yesterday.

Panic averted but feeling decidedly shaky Jack decided he'd better have a go at tidying the living room too. He paused in the hallway first. He'd forgotten about all the stuff in there. If he woke Ianto now they could have another play with the bar and the mirrors before work. The lights were all still there too. No, it might be better to wait until after work when they wouldn't be rushed. He'd leave all of this stuff right where it was.

Feeling better he stood in the living room doorway and grimaced. All of Ianto's careful decorations were trashed. He picked up the broken tree. They'd have to get rid of that somewhere. It had been standing in a bucket of sand which was now spread across the floor with all of the ornaments and tinsel. Sighing Jack started picking them ornaments up and putting them back in the box they'd come out of. The tinsel was all tangled. He thought of throwing it away and buying Ianto or his mum a whole new lot next year. Something glistened and as he picked it up his whole careful façade of happiness crashed.

The glass deer, the indestructible fragile thing was broken!

Ianto found him howling like a madman in the middle of the devastation in the lounge.

'Jack! Jack what's wrong?'

Unable to speak around the pain tearing through his heart Jack showed him the shattered pieces of the deer.

'What happened? Have you hurt yourself?' Ianto didn't seem to understand.

'It broke,' he said feebly.

'Jack, it doesn't matter. It's just an old ornament.'

'It was indestructible. You said.' Didn't Ianto see? 'But we broke it.'

And Ianto did see. He pulled him into his arms. 'It's all right Jack. I'm not broken.' He kissed his nose. 'I'm not made of glass, and I'm no more fragile than anyone else. And,' he kissed the tears off his cheeks, 'I am not broken with you.' He pulled back until Jack could see his eyes, made sure he was looking. 'You make me whole. I was broken and you have fixed me. All right Jack. Do you understand? You fixed me.'

Numbly Jack nodded and fell into his arms sobbing helplessly. Ianto lowered them onto the sofa and sat there a long time holding him in his arms. Jack felt his heart and his old wounds start to heal.

'I don't want you going in to work today,' Ianto said a long time later.

Emotionally exhausted Jack still managed to grin. 'Funny, I was just thinking that about you.'

'Well okay. I won't if you won't. I'll just call and let them know.' He sat up a little and looked at Jack seriously. 'You realise though that I am not going to stay cooped up at home for the next, what six days, until January the first. Nope. Not going to happen.'

Jack sighed. He didn't even try to make a joke about keeping Ianto in bed. 'I know. I can't protect you any more than I usually do and I promise I will try not to favour you over the others. But,' he eyes were bright with tears. He was terribly fragile, 'sometimes Ianto I can't help it.'

'I know.' Ianto kissed him. 'I don't like it when you put yourself in harm's way either.' He got up. 'I'll go make that call. You go back to bed. Then Jack, if it's all right,' he looked diffident, 'will you tell me about the others. The ones you've loved.'

Jack nodded. He smiled. 'Louise was beautiful. Absolutely gorgeous. Pauly and Euan, they were twins and no one would have said they were beautiful, not by any stretch of the imagination…'

'Go get into bed Jack,' Ianto smiled. 'I'll be right there.'


	5. New Years Eve

A/N Here we go again. Do not flame me for this. This was not my idea (well okay this bit was, but I had to set other stuff up). The trouble with working with three other people throwing in ideas is that you get a really big story. We are heading where we are going to appease the Welsh voice who reads over Chloe's shoulder. It is fair to say he is not a shipper. CJ has been reasonably quiet recently, and after the Xmas fairy lights that's probably a good thing. If you don't understand what these notes are waffling about, that's probably a good thing too.

Chloe is recovering from her ankle injury and should be back dancing in her show soon.

Happy New Year Torchwood team.

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December 31st

Ianto woke up and would have breathed a sigh of relief. It was nearly the end of the year and he was still alive. He couldn't sigh and he could barely breath because he woke up, as he had every day this week, completely encased and smothered in Jack's protective embrace. He was also nearly strangled by the damn tracking device that Jack had hanging around his neck and wanted him to wear at all times, even while in bed!

Jack was so paranoid that something bad was going to happen to Ianto before the turn of the year that in spite of himself Ianto was starting to feel nervous. One day to go. Not even one day, he glanced at his alarm clock, just over eighteen hours, and then maybe they could get back to normal. Although, he did like waking up cuddled like this, even if, he fought Jack's arm off, he couldn't really breathe.

Jack realised he was awake and made to pull him closer, suggestively rubbing up against him. Ianto moaned contentedly. He didn't really mind this either. The sex had been spectacular this week.

Half an hour later they were both up and in the bathroom. Ianto ran through his preparations for tonight's event in his mind. He could feel Jack's gaze on the back of his neck as he came out of the shower. Hopefully this ceremony tonight would help Jack find some closure.

It had been a little awkward to organise a memorial service for dead Torchwood employees without giving away why some of them meant so much to Jack. However he'd enlisted Gwen's help as he knew that she also knew of Jack's immortality and together they had concocted a cover story that allowed them to focus on Jack's list of those he loved. It was easy really; they would read out all previous Torchwood operatives killed while working for Torchwood Three – rather a long list - and focus on those that had died in December as representative of all of them. He and Gwen had researched them and had a little biography on each of them to read. Then of course they would end with Jack saying a few words about Alex and his team, the ones they all knew Jack had known personally.

One thing the research showed him was that Jack certainly had an interesting taste in lovers, the only thing that he could see linking them was their intelligence, he supposed he should be flattered. Looking at the photos, some were gorgeous and some were very plain. The girl that had died of cancer, possibly contracted from contact with an alien artefact had been particularly unattractive. Her photo showed a dumpy round shouldered woman with crooked teeth. Her best feature was long gently curling dark hair and what Ianto thought might be a warm softness in her smile. Jack had spoken as fondly of her, was as devastated by her loss as he was with any of the others. It gave Ianto a completely new insight into Jack.

Ianto was quite pleased with himself for putting the ceremony all together. At midnight they would lay a wreath outside at the base of the fountain, then come inside and float personal tributes and candles in the pool. Ianto had cleaned the pool out in anticipation. Then he hoped Jack could get on with his life and maybe stop treating Ianto as something he was scared he would break.

But first he reminded himself, he had to survive today.

Twtwtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

Tosh was picking up clusters of rift spikes, positive and negative, all around the city but so far the only thing to come through anywhere had been a nasty thing with tentacles that appeared to be pregnant and about to give birth. Ianto and Jack were in the cells watching the belly of the creature heave and roll. The animal had been green when they'd picked it up from the back of a supermarket in an upmarket subdivision but was now pulsing colours, more often than not a virulent purple.

'Do you think the colour thing is a way of signalling distress?'

'I don't know. I can't even decide if it's sentient.' Jack peered at the thing through the grimy glass. The first thing the creature had done when they'd got it in there was a complete gooey slide around every surface, floor, walls and ceiling in the room as if looking for a way out. Ianto was not looking forward to cleaning out the cell.

'But Owen definitely reckons it's got other life forms in its bulgy bit there?'

'Yep.'

'Oooo.' The both grimaced as the thing did an oozy somersault while its tentacles suddenly writhed in the air. The colour was flashing green/purple so fast it could induce a fit. Then the belly split open. In a burst of magenta fluid dozens of tentacled things flopped out, turned a few somersaults themselves then swarmed back over the adult. The adult's tentacles moved feebly and its body went grey while the young seemed to try out separate rainbow colours. As Jack and Ianto watched, enthralled and disgusted they ingested the adult leaving only a solid beak like bone in the centre.

'Oh that is nasty!' Jack said appalled.

'You don't think they can get out do you?' Ianto asked as the young proceeded to slime their way around the room searching for an opening.

'God I hope not. Come on let's get out of here. We'll gas the place. I don't care what they are. We don't need them here. We'll kill em, freeze em, and Owen can autopsy them, but I don't want the little…' Jack turned back when a flash of light caught his eye. He was at the top of the stairs nearly back in the Hub, dimly he could hear Tosh shouting something about a rift spike right here, but his attention was all on the light – the light that signalled a break in the rift.

About ten feet below him and glowing with the light of a hundred suns was a rent in space and time, forming, strengthening, and swallowing Ianto. Ianto screamed, Jack could hear him, tried to move towards him, but even as he moved forward Ianto was being dissolved, his molecules separated, shifted through space/time. Jack could see the terror on his face even as the energy swirled and dissipated and left leaving just the grey grimy cell block and Jack at the top of the stairs screaming and screaming and screaming.


	6. Some Where, Some Time

A/N Oh my! I have never had feedback like it. Evil am I? You have no idea. Don't fret dear readers. My stories ALWAYS have happy endings. Have some faith. In the mean time, I doubt this will make you feel any better. (insert sound effect here - evil cackle fading to silence)

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Some where, some time.

Ianto was burning. Rift energy was charging through his body, leaping through his synaptic spaces and triggering every nerve ending in his body. He'd dropped out of the rift, he knew that, could feel it withdraw, but the residual energy scrambled his nervous system. He was screaming. Screaming and screaming, unable to do anything else for the dreadful pain. Screaming, he thought distractedly, like that man on Flat Holm island. Oh God, he was now a victim of the rift. What was going to happen to him? Was he burnt? He felt burnt.

The pain was all encompassing. He was vaguely aware of hard concrete under him, people around him. Hands, voices. _…rift energy… alien?… medic… not alien… _Women, a man. _…hello… can you hear us…_Tried to open his eyes, blinded. Screaming.

Twtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

Ianto gradually came back to awareness. His body tingled, felt odd, heavy and exhausted. He was dreadfully nauseous and dizzy. For a while that was all he could process, he felt so sick. He remembered the pain. The pain had gone. Good. Carefully he opened his eyes. His lids were so heavy. He could see. He wasn't sure what he could see. The place he was in was familiar but so unfamiliar he couldn't place it. Old bricks, vaulted ceiling painted pale blue, he turned his head to try and see more and was rocked by vertigo and nausea. Far too weak to do anything more than turn his head he vomited across the pillow and the clean white bedding that covered him.

A girl rushed into the room clutching a towel, cursing when she realised she was too late to avert a mess. Ianto struggled to control his stomach, to get his breath back, to apologise. She shushed him, crouching beside the bed. She had auburn hair and blue eyes in a gentle smile. 'It's all right sweet. I was expecting it. I should have been prepared.' She went out of the room and he could hear water running. She came back in with a basin and as she came through the door he realised what was familiar. This place had the exact same dimensions as the cells in the Hub. In fact, he looked around with something like panic, he was sure this **was** one of the cells in the Hub. It was just they had never ever been painted like this. And they had certainly, he thought as he noticed shelving with medical equipment, never been set out as a sick bay.

With a sinking heart he realised he knew where he was, the question was: when?

The girl was shaking him. Ianto realised he'd been screaming again.

Then he was sick, again.

He felt the girl give him something like an injection and the world quietly faded away.


	7. Some Where, Some Time Later

Somewhere and Sometime Later

A/N This might make people feel a little better. Rest assured everyone will be all right.

The character Starla is Chloe's creation. Chloe also makes a cameo appearance as herself – he he. That was my idea. Cookies to anyone who spots her.

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Jan 2nd

'Someone's going to have to go up and get Jack down,' Tosh said. 'The wind chill factor's up to minus 15 degrees.' She glanced at her screen which showed a fuzzy long lens view of a forlorn figure standing on the Millennium Centre roof, his unbuttoned coat flying out behind him in the wind off the bay. 'He's been up there for more than eight hours now. I'm surprised he's still alive.'

'Are we sure he hasn't frozen solid?' Owen yelped as Gwen hit his arm. They were all exhausted, still shocked and rocked with their own grief. They hadn't slept other than desperate cat naps, trying to find information on following objects through the rift, bringing them back. It was hopeless. It had never been done, it couldn't be done. They were having to come to terms with the thought that Ianto was gone -unless the rift should one day deign to spit him back, and that seemed highly unlikely. Somehow the fact that it might happen didn't seem to give Jack any sense of hope at all.

Jack had stalked off in the early hours of the morning pacing through the city while they followed his track with the GPS pin that Owen had put in his coat. If they couldn't help Ianto, they could at least watch Jack. CCTV had shown him just aimlessly walking, coat unbuttoned, tears rolling down his face. After walking for most of the day he had seemed to be coming back but instead of coming inside he'd made his way up to the roof and he'd been there ever since.

Owen came up from the medical bay. 'Okay. Get your coats. We're all going to get him together.' The girls nodded. 'I've got blankets warming and,' he held up a syringe. 'I've got this. We're taking no nonsense. If he doesn't want to come I'm jabbing him with this and we'll carry him down. Okay?'

'Okay,' they agreed.

And that's what they did.

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When Ianto woke up again there was a different girl sitting in the room with him. She was leaning back in a chair against the far wall of the cell – which wasn't very far away – reading a book, her blond hair hanging over her face. He stretched and moved cautiously delighted to discover that while he still felt ill he was no longer in danger of violently throwing up just because he'd moved his head.

The girl looked up and smiled and him. She was gorgeous. 'Hi,' she said. 'How are you?' Her accent was pure cockney. Ianto struggled but he couldn't seem to coordinate his tongue to speak. 'Don't talk if it's too hard,' she sat beside him. 'My name is Rose Tyler and you're in Torchwood Cardiff. There's a rift in time and space that…'

'I know,' Ianto croaked, he knew where he was. Oh god, Jack would be going spare. His disappearance would break him. Where was he? Surely he would be still working here, wouldn't he?

'You're all right. You're going to be fine. You've been in a rift storm and it will take a while for your body to recover.' Her blue eyes locked with his, seemed to gauge that he understood. 'It's a bit like you've been electrocuted.' The girl brought him some water and held the straw for him to drink it. It made a big difference. 'Jack?' Ianto managed to get out. Surely if Jack knew he was here, however far into the future this was, Jack would be here.

'Jack?' the girl repeated puzzled. 'But you're Ianto Jones aren't you?'

How? Oh, of course they'd know who he was. He would have joined the litany of missing and killed-in-action Torchwood employees. They'd probably had him flagged on their computers as soon as he'd arrived. They'd know everything about him. 'Jack?' he asked again. His voice was coming easier. 'Where's Jack?' Oh dear god, he thought, what if he left after I went missing. He was such a mess worrying about me. My disappearance in the rift would have been the end of him. He would have gone mad. He'd have completely fallen apart. What would he have done? Ianto had to find him, he wasn't dead after all. He'd be somewhere. How long had it been? Feeling some sense of purpose Ianto felt a lot better. But the thought of Jack, broken somewhere, alone… Oh Jack, I'm so sorry. He was crying again, murmuring Jack's name.

'Ianto.' The girl sat on the side of the bed and stroked him. 'Ianto, shhh. We'll find your Jack. It's all right.' When Ianto calmed slightly she took his hand. 'You are Ianto aren't you?'

Ianto gave a small nod. To his surprise her face broke into a beaming smile. 'Yes!' she yelled triumphantly. 'I said you were. At least I'll get your autograph.'

Ianto looked at her blankly.

'I'll get your autograph.' She looked at him. 'What?'

'Why?' Ianto managed to ask.

'Cause you're famous,' she said like he was a bit slow.

'I'm not famous.' I've never done anything in my life.

'Yes you are. You're a famous singer. Everyone here in Wales thinks you're the bee knees, local boy made good and all that stuff.'

Ianto was incredulous. 'No I'm not. I can't sing.'

'Yes, well, whether Ianto Jones can sing or not is a topic of hot debate I'm afraid but you're still a well known pop star. In fact we're a bit surprised no one has reported you missing yet.'

Ianto couldn't believe it. 'I'm not a singer. I'm an archivist. Here. At Torchwood Three.' He struggled to sit up but couldn't, falling weakly back on the pillow. 'My boss is Captain Jack Harkness.' He shut his eyes, hating the weakness he was fighting, trying not to give in to terror as he realised he would never get home. 'He's also my boyfriend.' It was quite safe to say that here. Oh God, poor Jack. His voice broke. 'He'll be going mental with me missing. He knew something bad was going to happen.' Ianto was exhausted. 'I want to go home.'

Rose was staring at him. 'Did you say Captain Jack Harkness? Tall, dark and bloody good looking? Mind you that was a few years ago, might be going grey a bit by now. Probably dyes it if he is. Sounds American, comes from some back of beyond place in the fifty first century? He's alive?'

Ianto blinked. 'You know him? Thank God. Where is he? Is he still with Torchwood?'

The look on Rose's face was terrifying and suddenly Ianto made a connection. 'You're Rose Tyler? The one who was with the Doctor? You're the one who left him on the game station with the dead Daleks.'

'Jack was alive?' she said softly, stunned. 'I thought he was dead. I tried to fix him but the Doctor never said. I just assumed… ' She had tears in her eyes. 'Oh my poor Jack.' She twisted her hands, looked at Ianto and tried to explain. 'The doctor was dying. I didn't know he'd regenerate, we left in a panic – to get the Doctor safe. I'd absorbed the vortex, I felt about like you did a few days ago. Oh god. I would never have left him there if I'd known.'

'So you are that Rose?'

'Yes.'

'Jack loves you.'

'I loved him.'

'So where is he? Why isn't he at Torchwood anymore? I can't believe he'd leave. He's been here over a hundred years in my time. How long has he been gone?'

'What do you mean he's been with Torchwood for over a hundred years? That doesn't make sense. Actually none of what you say makes sense. Why would Jack work for Torchwood anyway when it was set up to track down and get rid of the Doctor?'

Ianto was nearly too tired to get his own head around this. He did his best. 'After he escaped from the game station Jack came to Cardiff because he knew the Doctor would come back there one day to refuel' Rose nodded. 'He needs the Doctor to fix him.'

'Why, what's wrong with him?'

'He can't die.'

'What?'

'He's immortal.'

Ianto was used to people's looks of incredulity at that. Rose was different. She had a look of dawning comprehension. 'Oh dear God. On Satellite Five, I tried to help him and…' She looked at Ianto aghast. 'And now he can't die?'

Ianto nodded.

'How old is he?'

'I don't know exactly. Whatever he was when he became immortal, mid thirties from the look of him, plus about one hundred and ten that he's been in Cardiff.'

'My god,' Rose breathed. She took Ianto's hand. 'How is he? Is he all right?'

'He won't be with me missing,' Ianto said sadly.

Rose gave him a look full of compassion and distress. 'I know why you don't know about being a pop star,' she said.

'What do you mean?'

'Ianto. Torchwood Cardiff, here… It's huge, there are hundreds of employees. ' She paused. 'But Jack Harkness has never worked here.'

Ianto couldn't work out what she was trying to say. 'What?'

'Sweetheart, that was a violent rift storm. You've not been displaced in just time, or even place.' She squeezed his hand. 'What date was it that the rift got you?'

'December 31st.'

'You arrived here in our medical bay on June 30th. It's not often patients arrive down here on their own.'

'It's our cells.'

'We have cells further below, but mainly we're a medical containment facility for threats of alien illness. This is one of our secure quarantine blocks. We have nothing else in here so it was just as easy to keep you here. Oh and it's now the 2nd of July today.'

'Three days? Oh god, Jack…' the tears were threatening again.

'Ianto. Please, try to keep calm. What year is it?'

He told her.

Her grip tightened on his hand. 'I'm sorry sweetheart but we're one year ahead. Think about it. Torchwood wouldn't change that much in a year and I can assure you that Jack has never worked here.' Ianto stared at her, his heart in his mouth. 'I think,' she continued. 'In fact I'm sure of it.' Her eyes were brimming with compassion. 'You're from a parallel universe.'

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July 2nd

Rose stayed with Ianto in the containment ward until he finally fell into an exhausted sleep. She was having a little trouble processing things. The fact that the rift had brought her Jack's lover from a parallel universe was one thing, Jack being immortal, and all that implied was something else again. It appeared very likely that she was responsible for that. Ianto had told her more. Now that Jack couldn't die, he was being slowly destroyed as the people he loved died. That meant, and Rose was very determined she would do everything she could to make it happen, that Ianto had to be returned to where he came from. But first, there was another implication of Jack's immortality that needed dealing with. And this one just might get a punch in the nose!

Rose went storming up the stairs. When she entered the large area known as the Centre several of the staff were watching the large TV screen which was suspended above the balcony. It showed the popstar Ianto Jones and his entourage moving through Heathrow airport. As usual his faithful "companion", the little blond dancer girl was at his side.

'Hey Rose,' Carrie, the redheaded medic shouted. 'Look at this. Apparently this is live. Do you reckon they just don't want to admit they've lost him in case he's off on a bender somewhere?'

'They haven't lost him,' Rose said shortly. 'Our boy downstairs is from a parallel universe. And,' she held up her hand, 'before any of you think of making a play for him, the one downstairs is gay.'

She left them with their mouths hanging open and swept into the office of Torchwood Cardiff's leader. She slammed the door.

The tall brunette figure standing behind the desk looked up and gave her a blue eyed glare. 'Pissed at me for something are you Rose?' There was amusement in the voice.

'Something you might have neglected to tell me?' Rose shot back. She stalked over and around the desk spitting such an air of menace that the other person moved back a pace. 'The reason you are immortal is an… ah…. genetic abnormality is it?' Rose used both hands and thumped the boss violently. 'Goddamn you Captain Starla Harkness,' Rose was absolutely furious, 'you do know Jack and you do know what happened to him.'

'Hey.' Rose's hands were caught and held by the strong nearly masculine hands of the other woman. 'Not good form to beat up the boss. What brought this on?' The Captain gave the smile that always twisted Rose's gut because it was so like his. But then everything about Starla was so like Jack, and Rose had always thought it was because in this universe there was Starla, while in the one she'd come from there was Jack. Now however she wasn't quite so sure.

'How come you can't die?' Rose asked bluntly.

'I told you. I was born that way.' Starla looked at her warily. 'Can I let you go now?'

'Yes,' Rose hissed.

'Hmm, maybe not.' She held on.

'Let… me… go…'

'Promise not to hit me.'

'No!'

'For fuck sake Rose.' Starla gave her a shake. She was much bigger, but in a cat fight there probably wouldn't be much between them. They both knew how to fight dirty.

'Okay.'

Starla let go. 'Good.' She indicated the couch. 'Sit.'

Rose sat. She took some deep breathes then she tried again. 'How come you can't die? Really?'

Starla leaned nonchalantly against the desk, her long legs stretched out, the picture of ease and innocence, but Rose wasn't fooled. 'Don't tell me again that you were born that way. I've just found something out.' Rose leaned forward. 'I've just learnt that after the battle on Satellite Five… know about that do you?' She didn't wait for an answer. 'Due to my intervention Jack became immortal.' She watched with satisfaction as Starla's eyes widened in shock. 'Now, you want to tell me again where and when you were born.'


	8. Aug 31 Parallel Universe

A/N Thanks for the wonderful feedback. Chloe is delighted. She wants you all to know that she has now changed her pen name to Harriella – but I'm not going to go back and change it in all these posts. So from now on the artist previously known as SuperstarChloe is to be known as Harriella.

Normal transition will now be resumed – oh sorry not quite. We're not in our universe anymore and our boy's had a couple of months to get cosy...

Definitely M rated Ianto/other

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August 31st Parallel Universe

'So tell me again,' Ianto said a little breathlessly, 'Starla's a clone?'

'Weren't you listening the first time?' Rose moaned.

'I like it when you tell me stories…. Ahhh,' Ianto hissed. 'Oh yeah.'

'Can't talk and do this at the same time,' Rose grinned up at him. 'Might have to do something else.' She raked her fingernails up his inner thigh.

'Fine by me,' Ianto hurried to assure her.

Rose crawled up the makeshift bed and kissed him. He loved the way she tasted, warm and sweet. He cupped her breasts, enjoying the weight and the way she moaned as he gripped her nipples. 'Starla,' he reminded her. He nibbled at her neck.

'After satellite five, mmm I like that, Jack went back home.' She broke off to nibble and suck at his colour bone. He knew he'd have a mark but didn't care. 'He knew he wasn't right, but didn't know what had happened. He didn't know he couldn't die, in fact he thought he might be dying. So,' she moved her body to lie fully on top of him, leant back up to kiss him again. 'Oh nice.' Her warm secret place pressed against him. 'So,' she continued, 'he broke into a facility he knew of and tried to clone himself.' She reached down between them and grasped his cock laughing when he moaned. 'Poor Jack,' Rose was still laughing, 'so scared of the universe being without him in it, that he has to clone himself when he thinks he's going to die.'

The first time Rose had told him this Ianto hadn't found it funny at all. But now… he strained upwards. God he wanted her. 'But he didn't get it quite right,' he finished for her.

'That's right,' Rose said still laughing. She rose up slightly and lowered herself onto him, his cock sliding easily into her warm welcoming depths. 'Ohhh.' She was so hot and wet. He'd forgotten how wonderful women felt. They moved together lazily, took a few languid tranquil strokes. 'Ohh yeah.' Ianto looked up at the beautiful blond women glowing above him. 'I am so pleased,' she said, 'that you're not gay.'

Ianto laughed. They were lying in a nest of bedding they'd thrown on the floor of the Torchwood airship. The ship was on autopilot heading for London. It was sunset and Rose's skin and hair were burnished with the golden light. She was absolutely gorgeous. Ianto felt his heart flip. For the first time he wondered if he did really want to go home. Rose lifted herself again, slid back, smiled lasciviously.

'No. I'm not gay. It's just Jack.' He thrust up. 'There is something about Jack.'

'Starla's a woman.' Rose raised up and slid back again with a gasp. 'A beautiful woman.'

'She certainly is.' While at first glance Starla was absolutely and completely Jack (it was the second glance that had scared the shit out of Ianto) she was also very definitely feminine. She was as tall as and had a similar build to Jack, but she had women's curves in all the right places. Her facial features were more refined, not as bold, more feminine, it was the only word to use. She smelt subtly different to Jack but so much the same that Ianto found it completely disconcerting. She was as sexy as hell. She should be his living wet dream. In fact as a dream she was perfect. In real life…

Ianto glanced up at Rose. There was something about her tone of voice. 'Have you shagged Starla?'

'Uh huh.' Rose ground down on him firmly. 'And I'm not gay either. It's just Starla…'

'There's something about her?'

'Yeah. Oh yeah.' He rotated his hips, reminding her who she was screwing. 'Oh yes…' She knew who he was all right. 'Ianto,' she breathed arching back, her body back lit by the sunset. 'She's so like Jack… oh…' Her pelvis rocked against him. 'But,' she said with a strangled giggle. 'She's missing something.' She groaned, her internal muscles gripping him tight. 'God and you've got a good one.' Her laughter rippled through her body and straight to Ianto's cock. 'She'd love to be where I am right now.'

'Stop it,' he warned. 'That would freak me out.' He reached up and Rose dropped forward into his arms. 'I much prefer you.' He kissed her thoroughly, hugged her to him enjoying the feeling of her breasts against his chest, the subtle movements she made with her pelvis, the way her thighs were clamped around his hips – the way she smelt of woman. 'Ohhh,' he moaned and thrust up into her. 'Screwing Starla would be like… ooooh…. not like shagging Jack…. It would be…' Rose did a twist of her hips. 'Oh God!'

'You fancy her though? Don't you?' Rose said, picking up the rhythm.

'Oh yeah!' Ianto grabbed her and flipped them. He grinned down at her as her legs wrapped around his waist. 'You?' Her heels rested on his arse.

'Yeah,' Rose admitted. 'Still. Even if she hasn't got a penis.' Her face was flushed, her hair spread out in a golden cloud. 'But..' she pulled up against him.

'She's not,' Ianto thrust into her. 'She's not Jack.'

'And,' Rose panted. 'She's not… god keep going… here.'

'No.' Ianto rode her hard and Rose writhed and moaned and worked him all the way. They came together, laughing and shuddering, and both of them, in the back of their minds thinking of Jack.

They lay tangled in the blankets, Ianto's head on Rose's chest. 'You know,' she said stroking his hair. 'It really isn't polite to talk about one woman while you're making love to another one.'

He snorted. 'You didn't seem to mind.'

'Strange circumstances.'

'Yes,' Ianto agreed sadly. He got up and wandered down the back to the tiny bathroom to clean up. The airship was set out as a hospital transport, able to carry something like twenty casualties of alien illness in contained units built into the ship's sides. It had full medical facilities, including blankets for shagging on, and a fully equipped bathroom. He dressed and was up the front peering out the window taking in the view when Rose finished up her quick shower and joined him. 'It's beautiful,' he said taking her hand. The sun was down now and the lights of Bristol were coming out on the ground behind them. Little pockets of light showed villages and roads all around them as the land went dark. It was a warm balmy summer night and the airship floated effortlessly above it. 'Did you shag Jack?' he asked.

She squeezed his hand. 'Yeah.'

'And the Doctor?'

'The Doctor and Jack together?' she said deliberately misunderstanding. She grinned. 'Yeah.' She fanned herself. 'Whoa. That was…'

Ianto smiled at her. 'I can imagine.'

Rose laughed. 'But then I missed out for a while. There was so much testosterone and futuristic hormones being pumped out on that ship. They seemed to be having a contest to see who could shag the other to death first.'

'Who won?' Ianto asked, amused in spite of himself.

'Oh I'd say it was a draw.'

The watched the world go dark beneath them. 'I am going to get you home you know,' Rose said. 'I'll get you back to him.'

Ianto turned away from the view and took her in his arms. 'I'm not sure I want to go.'


	9. Dec 1 Parallel Universe

A/N Sorry for being so slow updating. Harrie and I have both had real life issues that have stopped us writing for a while. Harrie is still incommunicado and I hope she doesn't mind, but I've gone ahead and finished this section anyway.

There will be one or possibly two more postings after this, the next one is getting rather looong – what a surprise.

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Dec 1st Parallel World

Ianto stood in the middle of the large warehouse trying not to quake with fear. He couldn't believe that that… that… pile of junk really was the best way to describe it… that pile of junk in the middle of the room was going to send him safely home to his universe, his planet and his time. It seemed inconceivable. Rose gripped his hand tightly was her father grinned at them. 'It's going to work,' he told them enthusiastically. He led the way over, a stream of technobabble washing behind them. Ianto's brain was too scared to do more than pick out the odd words.

They stopped in front of the raised platform that housed the singularity cannon, although it couldn't look less like a cannon if it tried Ianto thought inanely. Pete was still talking. 'Ever since Starla threw herself into this universe over a hundred years ago there had been a link between our universe and yours.' Pete looked at Ianto sympathetically, he finally seemed to notice that Ianto wasn't nearly as enthusiastic as he was. 'You didn't just arrive here randomly, your rift occasionally throws things at us and if you had a way of checking, I imagine you'll find that quite a bit of your arrivals come from here. It is something to do with a rent in time that Starla's arrival caused. The good thing is of course,' he clapped his hand on Ianto's shoulder, 'is that it allowed me to save Rose at Canary Wharf, and,' he tried to give a confident smile that Ianto didn't quite believe it, 'it means that I know I can send you home to the right place.'

A flunky in a very tight fitting UNIT jumpsuit (Jack would just love it) was fiddling with a large panel of buttons and lights on a board that stood a few metres from the machine. He looked up and smiled at his boss. 'All set?' Pete asked.

'Nearly done sir. The co-ordinates of time and place are set. I'm just working on the time.'

Pete smiled vaguely at the young man, not noticing for a moment that his worker was posturing for his boss. Oh yes Jack really would love him. Pete blithely continued his explanation. 'We can guarantee the right universe as I told you, and I can be ninety nine percent accurate on the planet and am eighty percent certain I can land you on a land mass. It should be all right.' Ianto felt Rose's grip tighten again. How did Pete know this? He was too scared to ask.

'Time,' Pete continued, 'is fortunately a lot more precise. I can return you, within a few days of any date you choose.' He looked at Ianto, 'I'm guessing you want to be back as close as possible to when you left?'

Ianto nodded.

'Good. It isn't a hundred percent accurate, it will be plus or minus about five days, so we'd better key in the fifth of January. We don't want you crossing your timeline if you go any earlier.'

Dry mouthed, all Ianto could do was nod.

'Okay then,' Pete said. 'Of you go. Take my daughter out for dinner, do whatever it is you have to do, but you better be back here at ten tomorrow morning. We'll start powering it up then.'

'Thanks Dad,' Rose dropped a kiss on his cheek before grabbing Ianto's hand and dragging him out of the building. They sat a long time in the car, not moving, subdued. They were both terrified of what would happen tomorrow.

'I feel like a condemned man,' Ianto said.

'Yes, but at least you're not alone in a cell.'

'No,' he agreed picking up her hand and giving it a kiss. 'And I am not going to die.'

'Of course not.'

There seemed to be nothing else to say – even though, obviously – eighty percent chance of landing on a land mass meant twenty percent chance of landing in the sea - he could die. Or the machine could just fail and scatter his atoms through time and space. The second worst part of that being that Rose would never know one way or the other. They'd been through all the arguments for and against using the singularity cannon to send Ianto back to his world. Everything had been covered, from the danger and lack of guarantees on the machine actually working, to whether or not if he stayed they really were suited for each other (they suspected not in the long term. Although Rose would quite like to have his babies she said his neatness would drive her mad). They went through what would happen to Ianto's world if Jack went mad, wondered if he really would, decided that it was more than just a remote possibility and talked about if he did go mad how long –months, years, decades would it be for and would that really be Ianto's fault? Unfortunately they decided yes it would be. There had been so many other options discussed that now they were exhausted and there really was nothing else to say.

'What do you want to eat?' Rose asked.

'Nothing spicy.' Ianto was feeling more than a little queasy. But he was actually hungry even if the thought of tomorrow had him terrified. 'How about steak?'

'Okay.' Rose knew how he was feeling and wasn't feeling a lot better herself. She was really going to miss him. Ianto's arrival in her life had been a delightful surprise. He was funny, clever, knew about her life, which was a real rarity, understood what she did and felt and was a marvellous lover. She hadn't been entirely honest when she told him she thought they wouldn't be compatible in the long term. Losing him was going to rip her apart. However, she recognised that if she felt like that after knowing him only six months then she knew that Jack would feel his loss so very much more. She had made a vow, way back in July when she first knew who he was that she would send him back to Jack, and even though it was killing her, that is what she was doing. She thought about dinner. 'We'll stop at the market and get something. I'll cook. I don't want to share you with anyone tonight.'

Ianto gave her a grateful smile. He didn't think he was up to being out in public tonight anyway.

Even though Rose worked in Cardiff she had a small flat in London. They'd been staying there on their visits to Pete. It had a tiny kitchenette, perfect for a cosy dinner preparation. They worked side by side, preparing new potatoes, salad, cooking onions and beautiful fillet steaks and as they prepared and ate their meal they found themselves touching each other, caressing and sharing. Ianto suddenly found himself remembering preparing Christmas dinner with Jack, six months ago, just before he was taken. The thought gave him a jolt of loss and sadness. I'm going home tomorrow, he told himself. I am coming back. But right now I'm with Rose and after tomorrow I'll never see her again. I won't be having a Christmas with Rose. Tonight is hers, and he pushed the other thoughts away.

Rose must have been having similar thoughts. 'What are you going to tell Jack?' she asked midway through dinner.

'I don't know. I don't think he'd mind that we got together, I think he'll be more upset that I've been gone for longer than he thinks I have.' He grinned at her. 'I know if your roles had been reversed he'd have slept with you.'

She smiled back. 'Oh you can bet on that.' She gave him a thoughtful look. 'You have to tell him you've been here. He needs to know about Starla. He needs to know that she's okay.'

'And immortal.'

'That too. It's all very weird. I wonder if Jack's cells have the immortality thing, which they obviously have or we wouldn't have the immortal Starla. What happens if he has kids?'

Ianto raised his eyebrows. 'I think he's fairly careful that that doesn't happen.'

'With the amount of playing around he does? Come on?'

'I haven't heard of any kids, surely he'd have told me.'

'He didn't tell you about Starla.'

Ianto conceded the point.

They had icecream for dessert and he sat with Rose across his lap on her cream leather sofa and fed her from his spoon. They exchanged icecream kisses, cold and hot and arousing. Wordlessly they both stood briefly and removed their pants before reseating themselves, Rose now straddling Ianto, rocking into him as they finished their dessert, licking icecream from each other's mouths. Ianto opened her blouse and let some melt and dribble between her breasts. 'I am going to miss you so much,' he said to her chest.

Rose leant back with a gasp. 'I know sweetheart. Me too.'

Their lovemaking that night had a desperate edge. It was violent and sweet all at once and after the barest recovery time one of them would initiate another round. Even as they were succumbing to exhaustion and starting to feel sore, they couldn't get enough, so aware were they that this was their last night. It was, they supposed like a soldier going off to war only, with the soldier, there was always a chance he would come back.

'I would have liked to have had your babies,' Rose said one time when she thought he was asleep. 'I don't mind that you're a neat freak.'

'I could have stayed with you forever,' he said in reply when she was sleeping.

'When did I become the keeper of Jack Harkness and the saviour of the world?' he asked sadly in the grey light of early morning, just before he took her again. His body aching from the strain, both of them raw from the friction he drove into her like if he did it hard enough he would be part of her forever, and just for a moment as he climaxed it was nearly true. Exhausted he did sleep for another hour, pillowed by her body as she cried beneath him, arms holding him tight.


	10. Coming Home

Coming Home

A/N An episode called Coming Home – what a surprise!

Here's something to make you all feel a little better. One more chapter to come after this. This whole homecoming thing ended up being another saga all on its own, like that's a surprise to anyone. This is all my own work now.

Still no word on Harrie – sweetie if you're out there you might like to let me know all is okay. I'm guessing it's just computer problems again, but with you… I just don't know. :-) I worry.

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Jan 6th

'Jack. Jack!' Tosh was screaming. 'Jack, it's Ianto.' She waved the phone wildly. 'Gwen, Owen. It's Ianto. He's all right. He's alive. Oh.' She suddenly sat down. 'Thank God!'

The others were crowding around, Jack hanging back, staring at her dumbstruck. 'Hang on sweetheart,' she told the receiver, 'Sorry.' She jammed her finger in her other ear. 'Where are you?'

She looked up at the others. 'Peru?'

All hell broke loose in the hub. The feeling of relief was palpable.

'All right. All right, I'm listening. What do you need?' Tosh was pulling up phone logs and maps with one hand while holding the phone with the other and somehow motioning for everyone to keep quiet.

'Okay.

'Uh huh.

'What?! How badly are you hurt?'

They all blanched.

'No. All right. Okay. Can you give me a number where we can get back to you?

'I see.' Her voice went cold. Something started flashing on her monitor.

'I've traced the call. So you're at the police headquarters in Portaleza? Don't you worry. I'll get someone there real soon. We'll get you out. And we'll get you home.

Suddenly there were tears in Tosh's eyes. 'It's January the 6th Ianto. You've been gone six days.

'Yes,' she whispered joyfully. 'See you soon.'

She held up her hand to forestall the flood of questions pulling up a map on her screen. 'He's all right,' she told them. 'At least he says he is, more or less.' She pointed to a map of Peru and zoomed it in on a mountainous region near the border with Bolivia. 'Ianto said he materialised on the side of a mountain in this region three days ago. It's taken him this long to get to somewhere with a phone. The trouble is, since he's wearing a suit, they seem to think he might be a spy. They're holding him at the police station which sounds fairly primitive.'

'Did you say he was hurt?' Owen asked.

'Yes. He hurt his knee and his shoulder while climbing down mountains. He's worried that they might try to treat it where he is. He's refusing. We have to get him out to a medical facility. He doesn't know how bad things are but he's in a lot of pain.' She glanced up to where Jack was standing white faced hanging on to the railing behind him. 'It can't be too bad,' she said soothingly. 'He had to walk a long way to where he is now.' None of them took a lot of cheer from that. They all knew how stubborn Ianto could be.

'So what do we need to do?' Gwen asked.

Tosh instinctively looked to Jack to see if he'd take the lead but he still looked completely stunned. 'I'll get on to UNIT, see if they can get a plane in there. We'll have to talk to the Peruvian government, we don't want a diplomatic incident. Gwen can you get on to Americans in case we need their assistance. Tell them we have an operative in trouble, just say we can't divulge what he was doing there but he's injured and we need to get him out.'

Jack suddenly took a breath and straightened up. 'I'll phone the Prime Minister. Let's see what services our people can throw at it.' He turned on his heel and strode off to his office. He didn't see the relieved looks the others were giving each other.

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Back in Peru Ianto was hit by such a feeling of relief that he started to shake. In the three days it had taken him to get down the mountain he hadn't known which world he was in. But now he'd spoken with Tosh, a Tosh who not only knew him but was surprised to hear from him because he'd been taken by the rift, not surprised to hear from him because actually he was standing right beside her or making coffee or just down in the archives. And it was January 6th and he'd been missing six days.

He was in the right universe.

He was only standing on one leg anyway but now that was incapable of holding him up. The strange little man who seemed to be a police chief looked thoroughly alarmed and started shouting as Ianto fell down.

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Jan 10th

Ianto had long since passed through exhaustion. He was now in a nauseous, hyper sensitive state of alert catatonia. The fact that he could come up with that string of words to describe how he was feeling was proof that he hadn't stopped functioning all together but that it surely wouldn't be long. He squirmed in his seat unconsciously; well aware that there was no position that was comfortable and nothing that would relieve the pain in his leg. A position change only meant the difference between agonising throbbing or stabbing burning pain, he couldn't say which was worse. On top of that he had a headache that throbbed in counterpoint to his knee and nearly in syncopation with the engine vibration. There were only hours left now of this excruciating ride. Soon, before the sun set tonight he would be home.

Home.

Back in his Cardiff. Back with Jack. Back with Tosh and Gwen and Owen who would greet him enthusiastically and Owen would give him something for pain. He couldn't give in to relief. Not quite yet.

Ianto had had a rough few days.

Pete had said that he couldn't guarantee where in the world he would appear. He had never however imagined that he would arrive, dropping somehow out of empty air several feet above a rough rocky mountain slope. He'd tumbled and rolled, been bruised and cut and his suit torn until he'd fetched up in a gully. He'd felt sick and he hurt so much it took him a while to decide that he wasn't actually badly injured at all. It hadn't been as bad as arriving in Rose's world via a rift storm – but it was still pretty bad.

The next two days were hell. With no idea where he was and with completely inadequate clothing and footwear he had started making his way down, following a small stream. It wasn't easy. It was obviously not an English stream on an English mountain. The mountain was very steep and the rocks jagged and sharp. He'd slipped and wrenched his shoulder trying to jump between boulders to cross the rushing water. Climbing out had been very difficult. Although he didn't think it was dislocated it was certainly wrenched and any movement of his shoulder was agony and his arm was useless. He managed to make a sling from his tie and kept going. He'd huddled in the space under an overhang where the ground was a little sandy when it got dark and shivered until morning. He still didn't know which world or even which universe he was in. He wanted to go home – to Rose.

The next day he got below the tree line where animal tracks wove through the forest. It was a very foreign looking forest. He had no idea what sort of animals might have made the trails. Goats possibly, hopefully. There were hundreds of other possibilities, especially if he wasn't on his own world. One trail seemed wider than the others, might possibly be, he thought hopefully, a pack track. It was going downhill. He followed it. Then on the next stream crossing, unbalanced by his useless arm he slipped again and crashed forward landing hard on the jagged rocks, with a terrible crunch of his right knee. A piece of rock sliced right through his trousers and deep into his flesh. Thankfully there was little blood but the pain was unbearable.

Wet again, shivering and terrified he lay on the track for several hours hoping the flaring pain would subside enough to let him keep moving. He couldn't get to his feet, quite definitely couldn't walk, his knee graunched when it moved. He wouldn't allow himself to believe he could have been shot across time and dimensional space to die of exposure on some awful mountain. At what was possibly his lowest point on that mountain a string of pack horses appeared around the corner of the trail.

The rest of the trip to civilisation had been painful and slightly confusing, but at least he knew that he wasn't going to die. His rescuer, a travelling salesman called Targo had held a gun on him most of the trip. He had very few words of English and kept repeating "James Bond". Ianto decided that he wasn't sharing his love of the British film industry and concluded that the man thought he was a spy.

It is very difficult to ride a horse with a wrenched shoulder and a broken knee. Targo's gun was a little pointless. Ianto couldn't even fall off the horse on his own.

When Targo delivered him to what Ianto assumed was a Police station he didn't give a damn that they wanted to lock him in a cell. All he wanted to do was lie down.

They weren't unkind.

They weren't helpful either although the word doctor or similar was mentioned.

No one spoke English. The short little man with the huge moustache who seemed to be in charge finally got the idea that Ianto would like to use the telephone. And he eventually agreed to let him use it. It was in his office. He didn't seem to think that Ianto might need to sit down. When he fell down after making his call however he called in several of his cronies and they carried Ianto back to the cell, laid him on the wooden bench and covered him in roughly woven heavy wool blankets. Shaking and shocked Ianto hadn't been able to express his gratitude.

Although the shaking had stopped he was still lying there in the nest of blankets when the American's arrived. There were two of them, a man and a woman and they introduced themselves as Marines. Carol and Danny, probably not their real names. Rank, surname or serial numbers were never mentioned. They checked his name though. Ianto struggled to sit up and the woman pushed him back down, asked where he was injured and proceeded to give him a cursory once over. She manipulated his shoulder, moving his arm around while he tried not to moan. When she pulled up his trouser leg however and saw his hugely swollen knee she didn't even attempt to touch it. 'Can you move it?' she asked. When he answered in the negative she nodded as if that was what she expected. She left the cell and he could hear the clicks and static of a radio conversation.

'Right,' she said when they came back in. 'We're leaving.' They didn't ask any questions about what a Welshman in a suit was doing in the back blocks of Peru, so he didn't ask anything about what the Marines were doing there either. Funny though that they were close enough to drive here in a humvee arriving barely eight hours after he'd called Cardiff for help. Carol offered him an injection for pain. Ianto accepted. A proper sling was put on his arm and as the heavy duty painkillers kicked in dissolving his bones the two Americans carried him out to the massive SUV and poured him, stifling giggles into a hastily cleared space in the back. Ianto thought he saw money changing hands and then the funny policeman was racing over and thrusting one of the blankets at him in the back. 'Best 'oollen,' the man insisted. Ianto giggled again and accepted the gift.

It was dark. As soon as the vehicle started moving Ianto pulled up his blanket and went to sleep.

When he woke it was day time and the vehicle was speeding down a tarsealed highway through rough looking farmland. He was feeling flushed and overheated still wrapped in his blanket. The painkillers were a distant memory when they pulled off the highway down a dirt road that magically blossomed into a huge military airfield a few miles later. Pulling up at a guard house they were directed out onto the runway where a Hercules transport aircraft was waiting with its engines running and the ramp down.

The vehicle stopped and Ianto managed to get out and stand on his one good leg as several aircrew poured out of the plane. 'Ianto Jones?' the leader confirmed. Ianto nodded. 'Welcome aboard sir. My crew will do everything we can to assist you on the flight but I'm afraid it won't be very comfortable. We have a full cargo load and the only seating is the fold out seats along the side of the fuse.' He peered at him. 'We can fix up a stretcher rack if we have to. We are equipped to carry casualties. Will you be needing that?'

'I'm sure I'll be fine.' Ianto tried to smile. 'Thank you. I'm just pleased to be going home.'

If he'd realised he was going to be on that bloody plane for the next thirty six hours he would have taken the option of the stretcher.

The droning vibration of the engines had worked its way into his bones. His internal organs vibrated with it and it reverberated painfully through his skull. There was no way to rest perched upright on the awful canvas sling seats that folded out of the side of the fuselage. There was nowhere to lie down. It was as close to torture as he had ever come. He was very pleased of his blanket as plane seemed to fly through hot followed by cold air. It was never comfortable.

The plane landed roughly every six to eight hours as it worked its slow way up the Americas. One stop may or may not have been at Guantanamo Bay. No one ever suggested he have his passport checked. Very curious. At each stop the plane was refuelled and the crew changed. Ianto was offered the chance to get off and stretch his legs. He couldn't walk. The offer of a stretcher was never made again.

Each new crew came back with a bag of sandwiches and a bottle of water for him. Continuously nauseous he left the sandwiches but did try to drink the water. No one spoke to him beyond a greeting and a farewell. The pain from his knee was unrelenting. There was no comfortable way of sitting. His shoulder only hurt if he inadvertently moved it. That tended to happen a lot when turbulence made the plane lurch and he automatically tried to steady himself. Very early into the trip his whole body ached from the way he was seated. He couldn't help it, he thought longingly of airship travel and the Torchwood hospital ship.

Here on this world this whole episode was just something that had to be endured. But now, finally they were crossing the Atlantic. He was nearly there. Still missing Rose, he was going home to Jack. His mind seemed to float in a dream filled space that wasn't close enough to sleep to let him escape his discomfort.

twtwtwtwtwtwtwtw

The Hercules made a graceful decent into a military airbase in Wales. Ianto had deduced by now that the cargo, whatever it was, crates and crates of boxes of it, was destined for an airbase in Scotland. What they could be carrying from Peru to Scotland was a total mystery, coffee perhaps? As the plane taxied to a stop a crewmember came back and helped Ianto untangle himself from his Peruvian blanket and get to his feet. He swayed, dangerously close to fainting, feeling the sweat prickle the back of his neck. He could not; he simply would not break down now. With the American acting as a crutch they made their slow way to the door at the front. Ianto could barely move, it wasn't just his leg, his whole body had frozen from sitting so long. He was dizzy and weak. As another crew member opened the door Ianto could see the familiar black SUV sitting on the side of the tarmac and his heart gave a jolt. Four figures stood in front of it in vee formation, Jack in the front.

The picture etched into his brain. His eyes filled with tears and he had to swallow hard.

As they saw him the "usual formation" broke up. Gwen and Owen broke into a run, Tosh just behind them. Jack stood there wooden; his eyes locked with Ianto's, his jaw set, like a bad actor trying to portray intense emotion. As the others charged up the stairs to reach him Ianto saw Jack start and then he was lost in the scrum of his colleagues' hugs. Overwhelmed Ianto just concentrated on staying upright. 'Easy,' he heard Owen say, 'he's injured.' Owen took the place of the crewman and semi carried him down the stairs. With two steps to go Jack was suddenly there, his eyes wide, looking as if he wasn't sure he was real.

'Jack,' Ianto breathed and suddenly he was in his arms and it really was Jack. His strong arms held him upright and his warmth and presence wrapped around him and Ianto felt himself melt. 'Oh God I'm back.'

They clung to each other and Ianto just knew that if Jack let go he wouldn't survive.

'Jack,' it was Owen again. 'Come on Jack. Let's get him to the car. Come on. He's going to collapse.' It was too late.

Ianto was still vaguely aware of things as they carried him over to where the SUV was parked, the girls close, patting him, tears all round. Everyone really believed he had been lost forever. His world was going in and out of focus and he wasn't sure why he didn't just give in and sink into oblivion. It might have been that he knew now that oblivion was a scary place to be. 'Come on,' Owen urged them. 'Jesus Teaboy, you're burning up.'

Am I?

Ianto sobbed with relief when they lay him down on the grass beside the runway. Fighting Jack out of the way Owen ran his scanner over him. 'Shit, you've got an infection somewhere. Let's get you back to the Hub so I can look at you properly.' Owen and Jack hauled him up again and Ianto screamed. They manoeuvred him into the back seat, everyone apologising for hurting him. Jack climbed in with him and held him in his arms. 'You want something for pain mate?' Owen asked.

'Please.' Ianto whimpered.

As the drug took effect and his body started that dissolving thing he melted back against Jack. He could finally relax. He was home and Jack would keep him safe. He let himself float away.

twtwtwtwtwtwtw

It took Owen the briefest most cursory exam to tell him what he knew anyway. 'Yan mate,' his trouser leg was rolled up showing his purple swollen joint to everyone, the wound where the rock had slashed it oozing pus, 'Your shoulder's one thing, I think that will come right on its own but this needs surgery. I thought you'd broken your patella but it's not that at all. You've cracked the bone but it's still whole, the trouble is there's something in there and it's infected. It needs opening up and debriding.'

'Can you fix it?' Jack asked.

'I don't know. I'm not an orthopaedic surgeon. It might be better to have someone who really knows what they're doing. I could probably clear the infection but I don't like the thought of messing about in his joint.'

Ianto lay back on the autopsy table cursing under his breath. Bugger. Just lying down felt wonderful. Now he knew he had a temperature he felt really shivery and ill, before he'd been blaming all his discomfort on the plane ride. And now his journey wasn't over, he wasn't going to get to go home. He couldn't even stay here just lying down. There was one thing however that he really wanted and could probably have. Awkwardly he lifted himself on his good elbow. 'Can I have a shower before you operate? Please. I haven't had a shower since...'

'Yan, did you not understand. I don't think I can operate. You need to go to hospital.'

'Just fix it up. I want to go home.'

Jack's hand tightened on his. Even with his eyes shut Ianto could feel the looks everyone was throwing each other. 'Ianto,' Jack said, 'you don't want to end up losing the use of your knee. You're going to hospital.'

So if Ianto was Jack's sanity that obviously made Jack his keeper too. 'Stay with me?'

'Of course,' Jack said.

'Can I have a shower first?'

'I'll help you,' Jack told him. He looked to Owen.

'Sure. If you think you can manage. I'll get on to the hospital while you do that, talk to the surgeon. The cleaner you are the better and right now mate, well you're not exactly smelling of roses.'

Everyone looked at Ianto strangely when he started to laugh.

twtwtwtwtwtwtw

Jack used the old wheelchair to get Ianto to the staff showers. There was no way he could get him down to his private bathroom. While he'd much rather have him in his own domain it didn't actually matter. After a short flurry of helping the others left them alone. Gwen found one of the tractor seat stools that were around the Hub in odd places and put it in the shower for him. Tosh brought towels and Ianto's spare set of clothes from his locker then left the two of them alone.

Jack was very pleased to have some time alone to collect his own shattered psyche. He still couldn't believe that Ianto was here. Even when he knew he was on the way home he'd have visions of fate sending the aircraft carrying him crashing into the sea. No one could do pessimism quite as well as Jack because he knew, absolutely, had experienced it personally, that bad things really did happen all the time. In a way, Ianto being injured and needing looking after was a godsend because otherwise Jack was sure that he would have quietly gone to pieces. He felt so raw, his grief at Ianto's loss had been so overwhelming, the fact that he'd been returned (nearly) whole was unbelievable. He was terrified he was going to wake up any minute now and find he'd only been dreaming.

If he was it was a very vivid dream, and one thing he usually didn't notice in dreams was smell. Ianto stank. Gently Jack peeled his clothes off him. They reeked of unwashed man, unsanitary conditions while the trousers especially had overtones of infected wound. No wonder Ianto wanted to shower. Slumped in the chair Ianto was giving himself completely into Jack's care. Jack felt his heart break.

With Ianto on the stool, leg out in front of him, Jack got himself undressed too, it seemed easier that way and standing under the water went over him from top to toe with shampoo, soap and a wash cloth. He kept his body close, his hands always in contact, pulling Ianto in against him when he didn't seem able to hold himself up. He could feel the feverish heat from him and turned the shower down to try to cool him.

Ianto sat there completely passive, as if he were miles away.

'What's the matter?' Jack asked gently lifting his sore arm and washing into his armpit.

Ianto winced slightly. 'Did you miss me?' he mumbled, his head in Jack's stomach.

What? Jack couldn't believe Ianto asked that, he'd hurt so bad, 'Are you nuts? I thought the world would end.' Ianto was so solid and real. Jack crouched down in front of him and pulled him in close feeling his own body shaking. 'I didn't know if I could go on.'

'I'm sorry.' Ianto dissolved into Jack's arms, his good arm coming around him, clutching at him. Jack hung on to him, he was real, he was here, in his arms again and his whole world had swung back into alignment.

They were both sobbing, both for different reasons traumatised and needy.

Jack had spent all of December terrified something would happen to this young man he cared about so much. Unfortunately it had turned out that he had been perfectly justified in that fear. He had been taken and Jack would never have imagined that he would come back; the rift just didn't work like that. He was shell shocked and in the privacy of the shower, with Ianto crying too he broke down, hanging onto his lover as if his sheer force of will would stop Ianto from leaving him ever again. He didn't know that it was only serendipity that had seen Ianto end up in the one place that could return him to here and now.

Ianto for his part had been plucked from his everyday existence and completely surprisingly found another life that had suited him very well. It had been very hard to leave Rose and her world but now, here, back with Jack he couldn't imagine how he could belong anywhere else. Jack did make him whole.

They clung together under the stream of water and stayed that way until Owen came looking for them. Jack was surprised to discover that while he was still crying Ianto was actually fast asleep with his head on his shoulder.


	11. Jan 9

A/N Just a wee teaser to keep you going. I thought I would have finished this by now, but obviously I haven't made it.

Next scene will be the last!! (Or this Parrot will be finding a perch in the funny farm)

Jan 9th

Jack sat, his hand resting gently on Ianto's. It had been three days now and Ianto was still seriously ill. Jack wasn't terribly surprised; he'd seen this with other victims of rift travel in his hospital on Flat Holm Island. They were often extremely susceptible to infection for several weeks after their return and for that reason there was a policy that if a staff member even suspected they were coming down with something, however minor, if they even had an infected finger nail, they were off work on full sick pay until they were completely well. Rift travel seemed to wipe out a person's immune system temporarily.

The infection in Ianto's knee had developed into full blown septicaemia. Although he was still in the UNIT affiliated hospital Owen had special access and was treating the infection with rather specially tweaked antibiotics which appeared finally to be having some effect. The surgeons were treating Ianto's injuries. They had decided to operate on his shoulder saying that although it would heal on its own there could be long term problems if it weren't "tidied up a bit." His arm was now strapped to his body and he was positioned semi reclining so that there was just the lightest controlled traction on the joint from the weight of his arm. His knee had been cleaned of stone chips, and the torn and sliced ligaments realigned and stitched back together. The cracked bone was expected to heal on its own. His leg was in a brace that held his knee at a precise angle leaving access to the bandages and drainage tubes that snaked out of the wound.

And Ianto himself just lay there, at best semiconscious and delirious, but usually deeply sedated, limp and burning with fever. Jack refused to leave his side. There was a fan blowing, helping cool the patient. It made Jack cold so that he wore his vest and sometimes his bomber jacket. He was getting used to it. He rested sometimes on a recliner chair right next to the bed. When Gwen brought him in food, he did his best to eat it. He wasn't going anywhere for anything, not even the end of the world, which fortunately decided to not happen that week anyway.

Sometimes, when the cycle of sedation and painkilling drugs got out of kilter with each other Ianto's sleep would lighten. He would toss his head, moan a little. He might even open his eyes although there was no sign of recognition in them. Jack found that very disturbing.

Jan 11

On day five the infection was finally coming under control and Ianto's temperature lessened. They started to reduce the sedation. Now he was more like a natural sleeper and was at times obviously dreaming. Jack himself had passed into a strange state of waking coma induced by long term boredom spiced with fear. But when Ianto started talking in his sleep he suddenly sat up alert.

Ianto was tossing lightly, moaning with what was obviously a bad dream. He didn't seem to be in pain. 'No,' he said, probably a little predictably. No one ever said "yes" in nightmares. 'No,' he moaned some more. And then 'Rose I don't want to go back.' That was quite clear. And then 'Rose,' again. Who the hell was Rose? Ianto said her name with such longing; she had to be someone he loved. But Ianto, as far as Jack could remember had never mentioned anyone called Rose before. Jack only knew of one Rose and that could not possibly be who Ianto meant. And Rose? Not Lisa? Jack knew Ianto's nightmares. Usually they involved flames, Lisa and cannibals or sinister machinery. He moved closer to the bed, staring at its occupant, grabbing his hand. Was this really his Ianto?

'Jack,' Ianto breathed.

Relieved Jack bent and kissed him. Ianto's eyes flickered open but he didn't really seem to see him. 'It's me.' Jack told him. 'I'm here.'

Then Ianto said something that really got Jack's attention. 'Starla?'

Jack's heart leapt. Shocked he cupped his hand on Ianto's face. 'It's me,' he told him. 'It's Jack.'

Ianto fought him weakly. 'Fuck off Starla.'

If Jack hadn't been so dumbstruck he would have laughed.


	12. Jan 15

A/N Sorry long notes here. Skip if you want.

There have been some very interesting reviews from people who haven't liked the idea of Ianto not being faithful to Jack. The Ianto Rose pairing was not my idea, brilliant though it is, and when it was first suggested I thought I can't do that. That was not because I thought it was wrong, it was because I didn't know how I was going to make it happen. That was actually solved very easily, and once Ianto was away from Jack he became a completely different character. I found that very interesting. I'd like to write more of Ianto alone and coping very well, thank you very much. It is not that he is "weak" or "defers" to Jack in our usual situations, but, he does come across as "the wife" the way he is usually written. I'm a wife and I certainly don't feel subservient to anyone and Ianto isn't subservient to Jack, but… there is something about that dynamic… and Ianto without Jack behaves differently.

I really enjoyed writing Ianto and Rose. Through this whole loooong story there were actually only three prompts (if you discount the whole "let's write a Xmas story together" thing). CJ wanted a Janto Xmas and bondage with fairy lights. The Welsh Voice then asked for Ianto and Rose (only he said it much more crudely – he's not very romantic). Harrie created Starla and threw her into the mix and I have put together the rest of it – so the length of it all is no-one's fault but my own.

So, having written so much to please the others I am now finishing this to please me. I like angst. Oh and I like happy fluffy endings. And I like sex, I might throw in some sex.

Thanks for reading and thanks for all the reviews, I've never had anything like it before. Until now I've always made a point of replying to every review, I'm afraid that wasn't possible this time but I've appreciated them all. Thanks to Harrie for including me in her crazy life, CJ (oh yes honey I love you) and the Welsh Voice (you really are gorgeous, but you know that – even if you're not a shipper). This has been quite a ride.

twtwtwtwtwtwtw

Jan 15th

Jack had been stewing and was once again trying to pluck up courage to ask Ianto about Starla. He'd lost Starla a long time ago and had assumed her dead, another victim of his ability to stuff up other people's lives. The fact that he'd created her life, even if it had been by accident only made it worse. Jack had no doubt that the Starla that Ianto had fought with in his dream was his Starla. After all, there was no single other person that Jack could think of that Ianto could possibly confuse with him, even delirious as he was.

He glanced over at Ianto who was gazing out the window of the SUV, looking at the city going past them, Jack suddenly realised, as if he hadn't seen it for a lot longer than just two weeks. Or maybe he was reading too much into things.

If Ianto had met Starla, Jack was quite sure of one thing, it hadn't been on Earth in this time. Right from when Starla first woke in the birthing chamber so long ago, the universe seemed to have a problem with them both being in it. He hadn't understood at the time, but back then he hadn't known he was immortal. They'd had the briefest time together, long enough to consolidate the memory transfers, although Jack was never sure why they did that when she was female and so obviously not him, and then because he wasn't dying anyway she became redundant. Starla however didn't take that lying down. He hadn't expected she would and he couldn't bring himself to have her "sent back" as it was euphemistically termed. The authorities weren't pleased about that so together they decided to head out, back to Earth to wait for the Doctor. Only something had gone wrong, the vortex manipulator had landed only Jack in Cardiff and been burnt out in the process. He had no idea what had happened to Starla and had thought the worst. She was one of the people, and no the list wasn't actually that long, that he felt really guilty and upset about. He'd managed, after a considerable length of time to successfully block his memories of his unfortunate sibling/not quite clone, until Ianto had said her name in his sleep.

So why was he so afraid to ask Ianto? Just the thought of Starla set a flock of gannets gnawing at his guts as his long buried guilt surfaced.

Ianto was fairly sure Jack had worked out that he'd been away for longer than three days. He seemed very uptight. Jack was still being very attentive and caring but there was something odd and Ianto supposed he couldn't blame him. He wasn't exactly acting normally himself. Half the problem of course was that he'd been gone six months. He'd forgotten what normal was with Jack and some things, just being here seemed jarring and wrong. But Jack felt subtly wrong too.

Ianto was already regretting his insistence that he be allowed home. He was just desperate to return to his flat, to be surrounded by his thing and to feel that he really was home. He needed to pick up his life, this life. He felt a strange dislocation, everything was slightly out of sync or something. For some reason he found himself completely unable to tell any of the others and especially Jack, what had really happened to him. He was going to have to do so soon.

He shifted in the seat trying to get more comfortable and caught Jack looking at him again. His leg was hurting really badly from all the contortions required to get this far. From actually dressing – he could only get into a pair of track pants with zips up the side of the legs – to transferring into the wheel chair and from there into the car, it had all hurt. Looking out the window, the Xmas decorations were still up of course. They'd been up in the other Cardiff too, but it had only been early December there. No signs of airships here.

He gave a sigh, then gasped as a small bump in the road jolted his leg. Might as well get this conversation over with. 'I can hear you thinking,' he told Jack.

Jack took a sharp intake of breath. Ianto could always read him well.

The two men assessed each other. 'Something you want to say to me Jack?' Ianto wasn't sure why, but if Jack didn't ask him directly he didn't think he was going to tell. His time with Rose had been so special, he hugged it to him, a warm private feeling.

'Something you might like to tell me?' Jack countered.

Ianto fought the urge to roll his eyes. That was so Jack and he'd forgotten the nuances and small things about being in Jack's company. He wanted to please Jack, to be at peace with this man who felt a little like a stranger after six months of another life. Ianto sighed. 'I was talking in my sleep wasn't I?'

'Mmm,' Jack murmured, concentrating on making the turn onto Ianto's street as smooth as possible. He keyed his com unit, 'Just coming into the street now.' He was **not** looking at Ianto. 'You called me Starla.' And now he'd said it he had to know. 'You've seen Starla? God Ianto, where have you been?'

Ianto shut his eyes. Yep this was it. He looked up at his flat as Jack pulled up by a parking spot right by the entrance. Someone had put yellow cones in this park. 'Are the fairy lights still up there?' he asked as he remembered. In the other Cardiff he'd stayed in the Torchwood employee's hostel, a building a lot like a university dorm, near the river. Except of course when he stayed with Rose. The building's main door opened and Gwen came out, waved at them and collected the cones. Jack pulled into the park. 'I took them down yesterday before Tosh went in to clean up for you.'

'Thank god.'

'I can put them back,' Jack said hopefully.

Gwen came rushing up to the car ready to open Ianto's door and help him out. Jack waved her away. 'Can you give us a moment,' he said over the coms. Then he turned it off. 'Starla?' he said turning to Ianto. The look he was giving him was heart breaking. Gwen gave them a puzzled look and then moved away. 'Please Ianto. Was it my Starla? Where is she? Is she okay?'

'Yes,' Ianto said tiredly. 'It was your Starla. She's fine. She's…' he searched for a word. 'She's just like you. It's amazing.' He took Jack's hand. With a feeling of concern he realised that it felt cold and clammy. Reaching over he cupped Jack's cheek. 'Starla is an amazing lady. She's gorgeous,' he grinned, 'She's outrageous. She's immortal,' he felt Jack shudder, 'and in a parallel universe she runs Torchwood Cardiff from a facility known as "The Centre". She's been there since the turn of the twentieth century.'

Jack was opening and shutting his mouth, questions tumbling over themselves and none of them able to get out.

'Breathe Jack,' Ianto said gently. He leant forward and placed a gently kiss on his lips as tears started to slide down Jack's cheeks. He was a little bemused by the depth of emotion Jack seemed to be feeling. He didn't know Jack had thought Starla dead all these long years. 'She's fine and she sends you her love.' He gave him another kiss. 'And in spite of severe provocation on her part, I didn't sleep with her.' Jack gave a crooked smile. Ianto sat back in his seat with a grimace. 'Can we get out of the bloody car now? I'll tell you everything later.'

'Immortal?' Jack whispered. He was starting to shake.

'Yes,' Ianto was starting to feel alarmed. He'd been so wrapped up in his own traumas he hadn't thought of what Starla must mean to Jack. 'Didn't you know? Jack, I can't hold you like this.' He nodded towards the contraption holding his arm. 'We have to get out of the car.'

Jack gave a strangled sob and wiped his arm across his eyes. His face twisted as he tried not to cry. 'I don't think I can face the others.'

'Let's get upstairs and we can send them away.'

'You were in a parallel universe?'

'Yes.'

'God Ianto!' Jack's hands grabbed at his coat, pulling him desperately against him and wrapping him tightly in his arms. 'How did you get back?'

Ianto bit back his cry of pain and gently tried to extricate himself. 'It's all right Jack. Let's just get inside then we can talk about it.' He tried to signal Gwen with his eyes and she seemed to get the hint. She hadn't moved too far away.

It was nowhere near that easy.

Talk of Starla and other universes was put on hold while they went through the tricky business of getting Ianto out of the car and upstairs to his living room. While the others noticed that Jack was close to tears, they quietly ignored it. They put it down to his joy at having Ianto home. They had been so concerned at his mental state when Ianto was missing that a few tears now seemed perfectly appropriate. An exhausted Ianto had to put up with welcomes home and lots of fussing, cups of tea and biscuits and hugs and more fussing, all the while worrying about Jack. While he appreciated the care, he just wanted everyone to go. It took forever to get rid of the girls, although Owen obviously was staying put. Jack wandered around like a lost ghost.

In spite of the heaviest dose of painkillers Owen would let him have Ianto was terribly sore. All he wanted to do was have a quiet wander through his flat looking at his things, then go to bed, in his bed, with Jack warm and close beside him. He was getting desperately worried about Jack.

He also wasn't sure that he could cope with Jack right now. He was too exhausted himself. Owen was obviously worried that Jack couldn't cope with him. As Ianto struggled to get up off the couch Owen was standing over Jack who had finally settled sprawled out, white faced and teary in one of the lounge chairs. Owen turned and stared at him. It was so bloody difficult to get up with an arm and a leg out of commission on opposite sides of his body. 'Someone want to tell me what's really going on here?' he asked as Ianto reached for his crutch. Owen knelt by Jack, touched the back of his hand to his forehead and then reached for his wrist to take his pulse. Jack stared blankly at him. 'How come you two aren't in each other's arms?' Owen asked rhetorically. 'Why isn't Jack helping Ianto to bed?' He stared at Ianto. 'Why is Jack's pulse rate over a hundred?' He stared assessingly at Jack. 'Jack,' he asked a lot more gently, 'are you with us?'

Jack grimaced at Owen. His usual leer went slightly crooked. 'I'd be with you any day.'

'What the fuck is going on here?' Owen asked.

Ianto decided on honesty. 'He's a bit shocked,' he said bluntly without elaborating, 'and I really do need to go to bed and I really would appreciate a hand.' Owen's eyes narrowed. 'Then I'm pretty sure,' Ianto continued, 'Jack will join me and I can look after him just fine.'

Jack shuddered suddenly and sat up like he'd just woken up. He stared at Ianto, seemingly shocked to see him standing. 'Yan, I'm sorry.' He launched himself across the room but Owen grabbed him before he could upset Ianto's delicate balance.

'Whoa. Easy.'

Jack straightened himself and seemed to come back to some semblance of normal. 'I'm all right. Thanks Owen. We'll be fine.' That was a dismissal but Owen chose to ignore it, his hand still firmly holding Jack.

'You can go now.'

'No, I don't think so,' Owen drawled looking across to where Ianto had started the painful process of shuffling out of the room. 'Bringing him home was a really dumb idea.'

'Dumb for you maybe,' Ianto muttered.

Owen came across and put his arm around him, taking a practised grip of the waist of his trousers with one hand and replacing the crutch with his other hand. 'All right, I'll help you to bed and I'm tucking Jack in beside you, but if you think I'm leaving you two basket cases alone you've got another think coming.'

Shuffling up the hallway Ianto and Jack exchanged a smile as they remembered what had happened in here Xmas day. Unconsciously Ianto paused at the door way to his room. It just didn't quite feel like his place anymore. And the bed?

'Jack?' he asked cautiously. The bed was covered in wedge shaped cushions and bean bags.

'Oh for God sake!' Owen groaned. 'I can see where your head's stuck. They're not sex toys,' he checked that they both got that point. 'They're for positioning you. You can't lie flat on your back with your shoulder like that.'

Jack winked at Ianto behind Owen's back and Ianto grinned. Message understood. He felt a warm hum of anticipation, the first really pleasurable feeling he'd had all day. It had broken his mood too and he shuffled forward, the room familiar again and the bed welcoming.

Getting his pants off was easy enough, his shirt much less so. Sitting on the side of the bed he let Owen unstrap the sling and slide it off. 'Maybe you should do your physio now,' Owen suggested.

'Hell no!' Ianto held his arm tight against his chest.

Owen held a hand out placating him. 'Okay,' he agreed quickly. 'But later. You definitely have to do it later.' He undid his shirt and eased his good arm out of the sleeve before peeling it off the other arm. He was good, Ianto had to admit. His arm barely moved the whole time. Jack stood at the end of the bed, impassive, watching. Ianto could tell but he didn't know if Owen could, that Jack was only just holding himself together.

The bed was already turned down. Owen placed one of the wedges against the headboard making an incline for him to lean against.

twtw

Jack stood watching Owen assist Ianto into bed and fluff around with cushions positioning him comfortably. He could see Ianto was pretty close to the end of what he could cope with and his heart wanted him to be there helping but some wall had come down between him and the world. He couldn't penetrate it, couldn't quite connect.

Ianto had been in a parallel universe.

As Ianto was getting close to the edge of coping, Jack toppled over. There was no sudden trigger. He just stood there with a thickening wall between him and where he wanted to be. His sanity shredded, his thought processes streaming away from him like light on the event horizon of a black hole even as he desperately clutched at them. Ianto had been in a parallel universe, Ianto had come home, Starla was in a parallel universe, Starla was alive, Starla was alive, Ianto was alive, Ianto was ALIVE, Ianto was home, Starla, Ianto, Ianto Ianto Ianto Ianto… It wasn't just his mind he was losing control of; his body was betraying him too. He had pains in his chest, his head, couldn't breathe. A sob tore itself from somewhere deep in his belly. He wrapped around the pain. Shaking. Shaking and crying. Curled in a ball on the floor… sobbing and sobbing.

Calm quiet arms around him. A soothing voice.

A prick on his arm and then melting away, thought processes, pain, longing, relief, whisping away into nothing.

twtw

'Owen. You can't just leave him on the floor!'

'I can't move him,' Owen said tiredly. 'He's too bloody heavy.' He looked up to where Ianto was peering at him from the bed. 'It's all right Yan mate. He'll be safe here.' Carefully he unwrapped himself from Jack's unconscious body. He straightened the other man's clothing, straightened his limbs, then grabbing some of the many pillows propped him in the recovery position with a pillow for his head. 'Spare blankets?' he asked.

'Ah,' Ianto had to think. 'Hall cupboard.'

Owen tucked bedding around Jack then came over to the bed. 'He'll be asleep for at least four hours so you can safely go to sleep too. He's perfectly safe. ' He placed a little hand bell on the bedside cabinet. It was like the one the school librarian used to have on her desk Ianto thought inanely. 'I don't suppose you're going to tell me what this is all about are you?'

'I'm sorry Owen, I can't. It's not my place.'

'It wouldn't have anything to do with that little ceremony you were planning for New Year's Eve?'

Ianto just looked at him impassively.

'Thought so.' He sighed. 'Okay, I'm staying here. I'll be in your lounge eating some of that mountain of food the girls left you which is great because there's nothing at my place, and watching your tele, which by the way, is smaller than mine. There's water there, can you reach it? Good. Oh and here,' he grabbed something from beside the bed and threw it onto the coverlet, 'a piss bottle. I'm guessing you'll be needing that after all the tea you just drank.' He smiled a little crookedly. 'Just leave it on the floor.' He paused at the door. 'Welcome home.'

Ianto sank back into the beanbag at his back, his body sagging with relief. He shut his eyes. The space beside him felt achingly empty but he was too tired to do more than offer up a brief prayer for Jack on the floor at the end of the bed. Just before he dropped off to sleep he had a traitorous thought. He'd never have been left alone to go straight to sleep if Jack was still awake.

A long time later he roused when a warm body crawled under the covers and wrapped itself around him. He slept again.

Twtwtwtwtwtw

When Ianto woke again it was dark, but he had a feeling that it was actually early morning, somewhere around 6am. He seemed, no, he corrected for the heavy weight across his chest, they seemed to have slept for something like sixteen hours. He was still hampered by his injuries, his knee and shoulder ached, but he felt better than he had since he'd come back. The feeling of sickness, the effects of illness had gone. He felt well again.

He was also feeling crushed and helpless. Jack, yes that was definitely Jack, he checked, was lying across him still fully clothed, head on his chest, drooling slightly onto his tee shirt. The trouble was he was also lying on Ianto's right arm and Ianto's left arm was trapped in the complicated sling. He couldn't move.

He turned his right hand over, rubbing it gently over Jack's flank. 'Jack,' he whispered in his ear. 'Jack, wake up love.' He bent his head and nuzzled into Jack's hair, savouring the smell of him, the closeness. God he loved this man.

But – he had to pee.

'Jack!'

'Huh?'

'Jack. Move.'

Jack's eyes opened and blinked comically up at him in the dim light. He saw awareness hit him and Jack suddenly sat bolt upright. 'Ianto!' He gave a gasp. 'Oh god.'

'Jack?' Cautiously Ianto reached out, forcing his numb arm to move. 'What's wrong?'

'You're real.'

'Yes I am.' And then Jack flung himself across him, arms around him holding him tight. Ianto gritted his teeth as an elbow connected with his bladder and reached up to stroke his traumatised lover. 'I'm real Jack. I'm back and I'm as safe as I can be.'

Twtwtwtwtw

Jan 16th

Ianto needed all the help Jack could give him to get out of bed and into the bathroom later that morning. Jack had decided he needed a shower and Ianto had protested. Jack had insisted and now as the sling was removed from his arm, the brace from his leg and his clothes slowly peeled off Ianto realised that this was Jack showing that he cared, apologising for not looking after him last night/when he was in Peru/when the rift sucked him away/any other time he'd been hurt and showing that he loved him as completely as he could. Jack needed to do this.

Ianto might feel well again, his thought processes clear, but he was still very weak. He sat passively on the stool and let Jack do all the work enjoying the feeling of his hands on him.

Jack had managed to convince Owen to leave them alone. Other than in the car yesterday it was the first time they'd been really alone since Ianto's return. He expected Jack to start in on parallel universes and Starla, but for now he seemed content to quietly wash him. Ianto was grateful.

When they got back to the bed Ianto found it extremely difficult to climb onto it. He saw Jack's eye's suddenly light up and lay back into the beanbag with a sinking feeling as Jack shot out of the room. Next thing he was back with something that looked like a flare pistol and ignoring Ianto's squawk of alarm leapt onto the bed, pointed the thing above his head at the ceiling and pulled the trigger. There was a surprisingly gentle poof. Then a rain of plaster dropped on their heads. When the dust cleared Ianto peered up to see a bolt imbedded in the ceiling and Jack puffing dust out of his mouth. His hair and eyebrows had gone white. The bed was covered in dust.

He opened his mouth. Jack held up a hand. 'Wait there.' He leapt off the bed and out the door returning within moments with a length of chain, the chain from his Christmas present. Ahh. And finally Ianto realised what Jack was trying to do. He was making him a monkey bar so he could lift himself up in bed. He nearly forgave him for a room full of plaster dust.

To give Jack credit he did try to clean up, finding clean sheets and duvet cover. It really was easier for Ianto to get back out of bed to change it though. Getting in and out of the bed was definitely easier now he had something he could hang on to. He sat on a chair and watched something he never thought he'd see, Jack Harkness, clad prettily in only a pair of red boxers, changing Ianto Jones' bed.

Finally getting back into bed he wasn't surprised when Jack climbed in with him. 'Are you all right?' he asked Jack quietly as he got comfortable against him. Jack hadn't said a word about what had happened last night.

Jack seemed to need to think about that and finally nodded. 'I'm getting there,' he said slowly. 'Decembers are really going to scare the crap out of me for a long time.'

'I think they'll scare me too,' Ianto admitted.

'Can you tell me what happened now?' Jack asked. There was a slight quaver to his voice and Ianto turned to look at him. He looked slightly nervous but otherwise okay. So, a little slowly because it still freaked him out to think about it, Ianto told him about waking up burning from rift energy in Torchwood Cardiff. Not quite sure why not, he didn't tell him about Rose.

'So Starla hit on you?' Jack asked. He'd pulled Ianto back against his chest and one hand was combing through his hair while the other idly stroked his belly.

'Not straight away no,' Ianto mumbled, nearly asleep. 'I was too ill to start with, but when she realised who I was, I was asking for you, you see, when I woke up. I thought I was in Torchwood here, but in the future. Then she got really interested. It was so strange. She came onto me just like you used to, back when … well you know when.' He gave a small purr of pleasure as Jack's finger traced his ear. 'It freaked me out. It was déjà vu with the wrong body. She smelt slightly wrong too. That was really disturbing. Mmmm.' He tilted his head up for a kiss. 'Oh that is so nice.' He twisted slightly for better contact and Jack kissed him again. He groaned when he had to stop to breath. 'Oh I've missed you.' He could feel Jack smile against his mouth.

'Did you ever kiss Starla?'

'Once,' Ianto said dreamily. 'It was like everything else about her, odd.'

'But she's hot though? Right?' Jack's lower hand moved lower.

'Oh yeah, she's hot all right. She should be my favourite wet dream.'

Jack gave a low throaty chuckle as he palmed Ianto's cock through his underwear. 'I wish you had slept with her, then you could tell me how we compare.'

'Jesus Jack.' But he didn't say it with any venom. He was feeling too languid and relaxed to care much about Harkness kinks, which ever Harkness it may be. The one however that now had his balls in his hand was starting to get his total attention. Oh that felt nice. 'Mmm, Jack that's lovely, but I think I should warn you, I don't think I'm going to be able to reciprocate much.' The only position he could be in was this one where he was right now. Flat on his back.

'That's all right.' Jack leaned down and kissed him again as his hand closed around his cock and his thumb did a circuit of the head. 'This is for you.' He stopped talking then, drawing Ianto's tongue into his mouth before shifting them slightly to take some of the strain out of Ianto's neck. 'I've missed you,' they both said at once. They grinned at each other.

'Just relax,' Jack said pulling him back against his body, his hand coming down to toy with a nipple. Ianto gave a moan and closed his eyes. Tilting his head up his mouth found Jack's chin and he nibbled on that, enjoying the feel of warm skin and the suddenly so familiar sensation of stubble. His hips pressed up into Jack's hand. 'Oh…s… good.' Jack's cock was hot and solid against his thigh.

'Enjoy it.' Hands were tracking all over his body. 'Let me do this for you. Oh and don't worry, it will be good for me as well.'

Having Jack Harkness' undivided attention could be unnerving, or it could be wonderful. This was wonderful.

After a few moments of teasing play Jack left his cock alone, suddenly rose up, squirmed around and disappeared head first under the blankets. Ianto giggled as Jack's feet suddenly appeared on the pillow beside him and moments later a warm wetness enveloped his big toe. He jerked lightly as a big warm hand wrapped around his other foot. Oh this was going to be good.

Lifting the blanket to check out the view Jack's boxer clad arse rose in twin red mounds of satin just in the exact right position for him to stroke. He did so as his toes were sucked and the balls of his feet massaged. It sent a warmth through his whole body. He wriggled his hand up the wide left leg of the shorts and rested his hand on warm smooth skin, massaging lightly. Jack squirmed his hips deeper into the bed. Ianto worked his way across to the other cheek, lightly running his thumb along the cleft as he squeezed the muscle with his fingers. That really seemed to get Jack's attention, but he kept up his assault on Ianto's feet.

Muzzily Ianto lay back and enjoyed the sensation. Jack didn't seem to be in any hurry. 'Um Jack,' he suddenly raked his nails down the buttock under his hand. Jack hissed and the bedding heaved. 'I'm starting to go to sleep here.'

The bedding erupted, part of a body hit Ianto's sore leg making him jump, and the next moment two steely blue eyes were glaring up at him out of the blanket cave. Ianto got the feeling that he might just have prodded a bear.

A bear in red satin boxer shorts whose teeth now grazed around Ianto's balls and whose satin clad arse was suddenly only inches from Ianto's face. Sucking in a breath as Jack nibbled along his inner thigh with just a bit more teeth than felt safe he decided that attack was probably the best form of defence. He really wanted to bite that butt.

Goddamn! He couldn't reach.

'Ohhh.' Jack's mouth had found his cock again, warm and wet and with suction. Ianto wrenched at Jack's boxers, hauling them out of the way and down his legs at the same time Jack helped him remove his. His ended up snagged, right leg still in them on the top of the splint. Jack's stopped around his knees. The view now, from where Ianto was looking was superb. Jack had the most glorious shapely arse. With claw marks on the right buttock.

Ianto soothed his hand across the red marks enjoying Jack's mouth and talented tongue. It felt so good. But even so he was frustrated that this was all he was going to get. He couldn't move to do anything else. He moved his hand through Jack's legs, caressing his length and rolling his balls in his hands. Jack moaned and the sound vibrated through his cock. ''s good Jack.' He wrapped his hand around Jack's shaft, the feel instantly familiar (thank God). 'I want you Jack.' He struggled not to push himself up into his mouth. 'Oh god… I wish we could… I want you in me.'

Jack was pressing into his hand. He could feel a hum at the back of his throat. 'Ohhh,' Jack came up for air. 'I want you too.' He looked up at Ianto with eyes bright with lust. He gave a lascivious wink. 'I think I know how to do it.'

The jolt of arousal that raced through Ianto quite made up for the fact that Jack's mouth had left his cock.

Turning around again Jack climbed up beside him and lying back across his chest kissed him deeply. Ianto felt his whole body responding. 'Don't you worry about a thing,' Jack chuckled, bucking his cock against his hip. He snagged some more pillows and the lube out of the bedside drawer then turned over to lie beside him. 'Grab hold of your bar.' Ianto did what he was told, grinning as he started to see what Jack was going to do. It was obvious really. 'And up.' Ianto lifted, pulling on the bar with his right arm and pushing with his left leg. Jack slid in underneath him.

'Okay,' Jack asked, his arms coming around him as Ianto lowered himself down onto this new rather lumpy cushion.

'Oh yes,' he said as his butt contacted Jack's hot cock. He lay back with a sigh, revelling in the feeling of warmth, of smooth skin on skin. Tension built in his body as Jack's hands smoothed across his chest and tweaked his nipples. He ground his butt down onto Jack's cock causing Jack to moan.

Jack grabbed the lube. 'Lift up,' he said. Ianto lifted as Jack rather liberally spread the jell around. At least he was sure that there would be some of it where it needed to be. He rotated his hips, encouraging the process, enjoying the feel of being so intimately touched. Jack replaced his hand with his cock, rubbed it up and down Ianto's crease a couple of times groaning then lined it up. He didn't need to tell Ianto to lower.

They both moaned.

It had been a long long time since Ianto had done this but his body knew what it wanted. He lowered himself all the way, Jack's cock buried in him and stayed there, eyes shut breathing hard. Feeling it, knowing it. Jack inside him. God so good.

Jack moved slightly, increased the sensation. It had been so long. 'Starla,' Jack said to him, starting to thrust, 'can't do this.'

Oh my god.

Oh My God! That was what Rose said. And Ianto, in what he would forever afterwards think of as a fit of absolute stupidity, felt the urge to confess everything.

'Jack?' he rocked back to meet him.

'What?'

'There's something else… oh… I need to tell you.'

'Something…' thrust, 'called Rose?'

'What?!' Ianto sat on him heavily.

'Talking… grunt… in your… sleep.'

'Oh.'

…

'Ohhhh… Jack…' Ianto fought for coherent thought. 'You don't mind?'

'Nope…' Thrust. 'Was she good?'

'Rose Tyler? You know that. Of course she was good.'

'What?!' Jack's voice rose to a screech. His fingers dug into Ianto's sides. 'Rose Tyler?' He held Ianto down, stopped moving. 'You didn't say it was Rose Tyler. You mean you slept with Rose Tyler? The parallel world's Rose Tyler?'

'No,' Ianto ground against him in frustration. 'She's your Rose Tyler,' Jack thrust up hard knocking his leg and making him gasp, 'she's just in the parallel world.'

'My Rose?' Ianto could feel a tremor run right through his lover's body. He gave another violent thrust.

Christ.

Jack shouted, 'My Rose is dead.'

'No!' Ianto tried to anticipate Jack's movements so he wouldn't be flung off the bed. 'Her father Pete slipped through from the other universe to rescue her from Canary Wharf. The Doctor knows.'

'The Doctor?' Jack stilled again, only to grab Ianto's hips and start thrusting frantically a moment later. 'And Rose is alive… oh… oh… fuck. Rose is alive.' There were tears in his voice.

Ianto was completely at Jack's mercy. He grabbed hold of his arm, the only bit he could reach. 'Easy. Careful Jack. Ow. Please.' He was sliding sideways onto his shoulder. 'Rose is alive. Jack! Be careful.' He could of course lift himself right off and away but he wasn't going to do that. 'Jack!'

His words finally seemed to get through and Jack's arms came around him again, squaring him off and holding him steady. 'God, you pick your moments don't you?' Jack muttered.

'I'm sorry,' Ianto said contrite. He leaned back into him. Jack's movements slowed to a gentle rocking movement that sent exquisite waves through his body. 'Oh Jack… Mmm… Oh.' His head fell back onto the other man's shoulder and he felt him chuckle. 'I'm sorry,' he said again. 'I just… I just wanted to be honest with you.' He turned and gave him an awkward kiss. He could taste the salt of tears on Jack's face.

'You do realise that this is the second person I thought was dead that's you've told me is actually alive?' A hand came up and gave his nipple a quite savage tweak.

A bolt of electricity shot to his groin. 'Ow.'

'You slept with Rose?' Jack asked fondly.

'Yes,' Ianto said. 'I did. Ow!' Jack pinched his other nipple. His large hand moved down and came to rest flat over Ianto's hot cock. He waited with baited breath to see what he was going to do.

'She's good isn't she?' Jack purred, rocking harder and pressing the flat of his hand into Ianto's groin.

'Oh yeah,' Ianto moaned. 'Sure is.' He grabbed the bar and started lifting, driving up the pace. Jack's hand came around his swollen cock, made a fist, his thumb wiping around his head. 'Oh god…' He dug his heel in and pushed right up, right to the tip, and carefully controlled, all the way back down. 'Oh… my… god…' Up. And down. 'Rose… is… real… good…' Up and down. 'But…'

'What?' Jack murmured into his neck.

'She can't…' Up and hold at the tip. Squeeze and down. Jack bucked underneath him. '… do… this.'

Jack gurgled in incoherent agreement. His free arm came around Ianto's waist holding him safely and he started to pump in earnest. Ianto grabbed onto his arm and rocked back to meet him. He'd forgotten, oh wow, that feeling there, forgotten, how good this felt. He felt the tension mounting in his groin, in his chest, spreading out from that pleasurable place inside and the wonderful sensation of being fucked. Jack. Being fucked by Jack. Felt Jack's grip tighten on his cock. Felt his rhythm start to stutter. 'Jaaa…k.'

A litany... 'Jack. Jack. Jack. Jack.' … of love…. 'Jackjackjackjackjack…' Christ tightening, coming. Coming. Jack coming. Jack juddering, crying. Jack jerking, going rigid, his cock pulsing and pumping in Ianto's arse. Ianto jerked and convulsed and gasped and came as jets of come shunted out over his belly. 'JACK!'

Twtwtwtw

Ianto came down from his high to find he'd hurt himself. As soon as he could find the strength he lifted himself off Jack and sideways back onto the pillows. Hell, he'd really hurt his shoulder somehow. Jack's hands stayed on his waist helping him move and then as he settled pulling him back against him so that he was resting against him, just no longer with his entire body weight. Jack was crying. Ianto melting with the after effects of great sex and feelings of love and homecoming was crying too. Jack held him tight and Ianto placed his hand over Jack's where it rested on his stomach.

Jack snagged the duvet and pulled it back up over them. 'Why didn't you tell me?' he asked lacing his fingers through Ianto's.

Ianto squeezed back. He shrugged. 'There wasn't a chance before.'

'Bullshit!'

Ianto jumped.

'You told me about Starla before. You don't think you could have let me know that Rose was alive?' Jack's mouth twisted. 'You didn't think I might want to know that?'

'I'm sorry. I just…' What could he say? 'I don't know. I don't know why I didn't.'

'You wanted to stay there with Rose didn't you?' It wasn't an accusation, just a sad statement.

'Yes.' He tried to ease his position. 'No. I came home for you.' He twisted round as best he could so he could see Jack properly. 'I came back for you Jack. I didn't have to.'

'You loved her didn't you?'

'Yes,' Ianto whispered. 'I did.'

'I loved her too.'

'I know that.' Tenderly Ianto rubbed his thumb across Jack's knuckles.

'Do you miss her?'

'Of course.'

'Me too. I can't believe she's alive.' Jack turned and gave him a sharp look. 'Did you say the Doctor? Don't tell me you've shagged the Doctor too?'

Ianto sighed. 'No Jack. The Doctor wasn't there. Your Doctor had nothing to do with it.'

'So,' Jack summed up. 'You've shagged Rose, but not Starla. Is that right? Who else have you shagged?'

Ianto turned around and planted a kiss on his chest; it was the only bit he could reach. 'Just you Jack.'

Jack turned around and kissed him properly. 'Okay,' he said making a visible effort to pull himself together. 'Tell me all about it. Tell me everything. And this time Ianto…'

'I know Jack. Don't leave anything out or else.' He kissed him again.

'Yeah. I want the sex bits too.' Jack kissed back.

'What's the or else?' Ianto nibbled gently at his chin. 'You said tell or else.'

'You get to wear a weevil boiler suit for a week.' Jack's hand found his nipple.

'Oo.'

'Tell Ianto. What's the parallel Torchwood like?'

'I give up. Stop torturing me and I'll tell you.'

They both giggled.

'I'm glad you're back.'

'Me too.'

END


End file.
